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a ©uaker Experiment in (Kobernment. 



A QUAKER EXPERIMENT 
IN GOVERNMENT 



History of Quaker Government in Pennsylvania^ 

1682-1783. 



By ISAAC SHARPLESS 

PRESIDENT OF HAVERFORD COLLEGE 



Popular lEtiition 

TWO VOLUMES IN ONE 



" For my country I eyed the Lord in the obtaining of it, and more was 
I drawn inward to look to him and to owe it to his hand and power, than 
to any other way. I have so obtained it and desire that I may not be un- 
worthy of his love and do that which may answer his kind providence and 
serve his truth and people ; that an example may be set up to the nations ; 
there may be room there though not here for such a holy experiment." 

William Penn. 



FERRIS & LEACH 

29 NORTH SEVENTH STREET 

1902. 



THE LI8KARY ©F 

GOi^«G??ESS, 
Two COPIM HajElVEB 

JAN. 29 1902 

nCor^klOMT ENTRY 

CLASS ^ XXa No. 

COPY a 



Copyright, 1902. by Ferris & Lkach. 



^ 






PREFACE. 

It is not at all unlikely that this contribution to 
the early history of Pennsylvania will show a bias 
towards the habits of thought and action which 
have characterized the religion of the ancestors of 
the writer. If so it is unintentional. 

The purpose of the book is to include, with 
other sources of information, the contemporary 
Quaker view. This has been gained by a careful 
examination of Meeting Records and private let- 
ters of the times, and a fairly intimate personal 
acquaintance with many who probably repre- 
sent, in this generation, in their mental and moral 
characteristics, the "Quaker Governing Class" 
of the first century of the province. 

The ordinary public sources of information 
have, of course, been used ; but a dependence on 
these alone would incur the danger, if not of mis- 
representing facts, at the best of giving to them a 
wrong coloring. 

While the general ideas of Quakerism were 
worked out in Penn's Frame of Government, they 
were not fully manifest in the subsequent history 



of the proviuce, nor oven in the Acts of the As- 
sembly, thougli tliis body was controlled by- 
Friends until IT 56. 

The minutes of the Yearly and other Meetings 
would give a different idea of the political prin- 
ciples and bias of Friends from that to be gath- 
ered from the printed proceedings of either tht 
Council or the Legislature, and all should be 
considered in making up a correct historical judg- 
ment. 

The efforts of the Historical Society of Penn- 
sylyania ha ye brought together much unused ma- 
terial. An autlientic and impartial liistory of 
Colonial Pennsylyania is yet to be written. 

I. S. 

Ha verfo rd College, 
1S9S. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
Principles of Government, 1 

CHAPTER II. 

The Quakers in England, T 

CHAPTER III. 
The Quakers in Pennsylvania, ... 21 

CHAPTER IV. 

Democracy and Civil Liberty, .... 47 

CHAPTER Y. 

Religious Liberty, 116 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Indians, 1.52 

CHAPTER VII. 

Military Matters, 183 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Last Days of Quaker Control 

of the Assembly, 224 



a ©uaker CHxperiment in ffiobernment* 



CHAPTER I. 

PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT. 

The principles upon which the settlers of 
Pennsylvania sought to base their government 
were, — 

1. Perfect democracy. This hardly needs 
qualification. For while the governor was non- 
elective and to some extent thwarted the will 
of the people, this was probably not the orig- 
inal intention, but rather an unexpected devel- 
opment of proprietary rights as construed by 
unsympathetic heirs of William Penn. 

2. Perfect religious liberty. There was no 
restriction on the free worship of any orderly 
sect, and originally no religious test for office 
except a profession of belief in Jesus Christ. It 
is not unlikely that this limitation w^as imposed 
by English authority or from fear of English 
veto. 

3. Perfect justice and fairness in dealing with 
aborigines and neighbors. Without concern- 
ing themselves to define the Indian rights in the 



2 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

soil, whatever existed were purchased, and all 
complaints were met by an evident desire to 
recognize in others the same personal privileges 
they claimed for themselves. 

4. The absence of all military and naval pro- 
vision for attack and defense. They recognized 
the necessity for force through police and other 
agencies in internal disturbance. They would 
never need any force for attack, because they 
Avould never be the aggressors. In the matter of 
defense there were differences of opinion, and 
the public acts of the Quaker Assembly may be 
fairly construed as in some instances inconsistent 
with their principles. But a careful study of the 
records of the meetings of Friends, as well as the 
public records of the government, will probably 
convince an unprejudiced person that a belief 
in the impropriety of an armed force was indeed 
one of their strongly held convictions. 

5. The abolition of Oaths. This did not neces- 
sarily introduce any difficult principle of gov- 
ernment. It afforded, however, an excellent op- 
portunity for English and provincial enemies to 
harass those in official life, either by requiring 
them to take oaths themselves or to administer 
them to others. 

All of these principles had been many times 



Principles of Government. 3 

expounded, and some of them practised, before 
1682. But the collection had not before been 
tried. It was the legitimate fruit of the religious 
principles of the Society of Friends, and of the 
best thought and experience of William Penn. 
But it was only a " Holy Experiment," — the re- 
sponsibility was very great, the many chances 
for failure must have been at least partly fore- 
seen, and the spectacle of these pioneers mus- 
tering their confidence in '' the Truth,'' risk- 
ing their happiness, their fortunes, and the 
reputation of their religious Society, is one of 
the exalted scenes of history. The measure of 
success they achieved deserves, probably, more 
recognition than it has received. Had they been 
independent of English control, the experiment 
would have been more conclusive. The frame of 
government was examined and perhaps modified 
by the Crown, and the royal power was appealed 
to not infrequently to threaten forfeiture of 
charter and abridgment of liberty in cases of 
disagreement. All laws enacted were subject to 
English veto. English quarrels with France, re- 
produced in the New World, strained the pacific 
principles of the Pennsylvania Quakers repeat- 
edly, and finally broke their control of govern- 
ment. The consent of the governed retained 



4 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

these principles in power for a half centiirv after 
the sect which embodied them most conspic- 
uously was in a minority, and would have re- 
tained them we know not how much longer, 
could that consent alone have determined the 
question. It was the power of the English guv- 
eniment exercised in response to the demands of 
the minority in the Province which forced the 
alternative of sacrifice of power or sacrifice of 
principle on the part of the popularly-elected 
Quaker Assembly. It was the same power which 
by enforcing the necessity of administering 
oaths, drove from office many of the most relia- 
ble exponents of the Founder's policy. 

TVilliam Penn and his friends, after three dec- 
ades of suffering such as has seldom fallen to 
the lot of Englishmen to endure, found resting 
upon them the direct responsibilities of govern- 
ment. Hitherto the State had been to them not 
a beneficent agency, but a cruel oppressor. They 
suffered passively, for deeply engraved in their 
belief was the Biblical sentiment. " The p:>wers 
that be are ordained of God." But they felt also 
that the maintenance of certain sacred principles 
was a duty which transcended all obligations to 
human government. Here in Pennsylvania was 
the chance to make the Divine Law and the 



Principles of Government. 5 

human law one. They embraced the opportu- 
nity, and the responsibility of success or failure 
was upon them. They had to prove that their 
beliefs were not, as their enemies claimed, chi- 
merical and unworkable. So fearful seemed the 
consequences of failure, not to themselves, but 
to " Truth," that the retention of power was a 
duty, not a privilege. The English Crown, by a 
stroke of the pen, could subvert their liberties, 
destroy the fruits of their labors, and establish 
the triumph of that which in their eyes was the 
error from which they felt they had been deliv- 
ered. It is not surprising that they went to the 
verge of consistency, and perhaps at times a lit- 
tle beyond, in order to tide over difficulties 
which it was hoped were only temporary. The 
alternative was a forfeiture of charter, perhaps 
fines' and jails for conscience' sake, the destruc- 
tion of all that which they had left their English 
homes to build up. They hoped to maintain a 
consistent policy until they should survive the 
experimental stage and establish a successful 
state. But there were sacrifices of principle 
they could not make, and after seventv-four 
years of control, they sadly gave up the contest 
with the knowledge that the battle had been only 
partly won. 



6 A Qual'er Experiment in Government. 

No one can appreciate the history of Colonial 
Pennsylvania who does not understand the 
spirit, the methods, and the beliefs of the So- 
ciety of Friends. The failure to grasp these 
firmly, the dependence upon public records ex- 
clusively for the materials of history, has been 
the cause of serious misjudgments in many 
othervi^ise admirable narratives of the times. 



The Quakers in England. 7 

CHAPTER II. 

THE QUAKERS IN ENGLAND. 

William Penn was about 22 years old when 
he decided to become a Quaker. This decision 
has had a profound influence upon the history of 
America. He was the beloved son of Vice- 
Admiral Sir William Penn, a distinguished offi- 
cer of the navy who had achieved distinction 
under the Connnonwealth and Charles 11. He 
was rich, talented, highly educated, attractive 
in person and manner, and a brilliant career 
at court or in his father's profession was open 
to him. But a growing seriousness at times 
threatened to disappoint the hopes his father en- 
tertained of his preferment. 

It is hardly a matter of wonder that in these 
times a development of religious interests 
should provoke alarm in such a father. England 
was full of Puritan sects of all imaginable forms 
of belief, many of them crude, but most of them 
earnest. In fact, almost all of the religious fer- 
vency of the nation had gone in a Puritan direc- 
tion. A growth in earnestness was very often a 
precursor to some unexpected outbreak of doc- 
trinal allegiance, which, no matter how absurd, 



8 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

Avould bold its votaries through obloquy and 
persecutions even unto death. The courage and 
honesty of England deserted the court and took 
up their abode among the secretaries. These lost 
all chance of official recogTiition in State affairs 
or court society, but a sense of a deeper loyalty 
and of a higher career was more than an equiva- 
lent for the loss. 

Hence when the young Oxford undergrad- 
uate developed some distaste for the established 
forms, and rather than absent himself from cer- 
tain unauthorized religious meetings with his 
companions, allowed himself to be expelled from 
the University, he did not receive a warm wel- 
come at home. Driving from the house did not 
accomplish a cure, but an extended visit to Paris 
and to the theological school at Saumur was 
more effective, and he returned " a most modish 
person, grown quite a fine gentleman." "^ 

This did not last long, and a growing serious- 
ness took him to a meeting of Friends in Cork, 
whither he had gone to attend to his father's 
Irish estates. Tie there heard the words from 
the mouth of Thomas Loe which determined his 
religious association, his attitude towards society 
and government, and his lifelong convictions. 



I'he Quakers in England. 9 

This was in 16 (3 (5. George Fox had been 
preaching for twenty years, and multitudes ap- 
parently ripe for the new teaching had Hocked 
to his standard. There were already thousands 
of Quakers, as they were called in opprobrium. 
They were inhumanly persecuted, but they 
throve on it. The jails were full of them, and 
foul places the jails of those days were, but more 
crowded into the meetings, full of the martyr 
spirit. 

It is not necessary to give here a full account 
of Quaker doctrine. Only such portions will be 
referred to as seem to have some bearing on the 
production of the type which afterwards found 
its way into Pennsylvania and embodied itself 
in the frame of government, the laws, the insti- 
tutions, and the customs of the State. 

That the Divine Being speaks directly to 
the heart of every man was the central point of 
the teaching — central in that it was the tenet 
most pressed by the ministers as of vital conse- 
quence to the individual believer, and central in 
that it was logically " the root of the goodly 
tree of doctrine which sprang from it." * Their 
Christian lives consisted in obedience to this 
voice, variously called the Seed, Grace, Light of 
* William Penn. 



10 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

Christ, Word of God, Christ Within. George Fox 
said it was his business to point men to Christ 
and to lea\^e them there, and almost any one of 
the countless sermons of which we have abstracts 
in the Journals of Friends contains in more or 
less obscure and mystical language the statement 
that the kingdom of God is within men. This 
doctrine was effective in their mouths and con- 
tagious, and thousands of Christians settled 
down under its influence, to draw their spiritual 
nourishment and impulses from this Divine 
Source. The plain layman looked to the Spirit 
of God to guide him in the comprehension of 
the Bible and other sources of spiritual truth, 
and to a gTeater or less extent in the affairs of 
daily life; the church officer performed his func- 
tions under a sense of its continual direction; 
the minister preached and preached only when 
he apprehended it gave him a direct and imme- 
diate message to the congregation before him. 
Men could not determine its course. Into the 
hearts of the most illiterate came its power, and 
words uttered by them were as authoritative as 
if spoken by the university graduate. It re- 
duced to a spiritual level all ranks of birth, sex, 
fortune or education. The message, not the 
form of its delivery nor the messenger through 



The Quakers in England. 11 

whom it came, was to be the object of reverence, 
for that message was from God, who selected 
among His servants the one to deliver it. If in 
a meeting the ministers sat upon a higher bench 
facing the congregation, it was only for conve- 
nience of speaking and not to assume direction, 
and not infrequently came the inspired voice of 
exhortation and prayer from the commonest 
member of the crowded assemblage. No line 
was drawn between clergy and laity. It was a 
spiritual democracy as well as a social one. I^o 
ordination made any hierarchy — only there was 
a formal recognition that upon .this man or 
woman God had conferred a spiritual gift of 
some sort to benefit the world. 

The Grace was universal. Every man in 
Christian or heathen lands had felt its influence, 
and if yielded to, his salvation might be effected. 
It was the function of the missionary to call at- 
tention to it, to turn hearts to the Christ within, 
as w^ell as to inform them of the Christ of his- 
tory, whose Deity and Atonement they plainly 
stated, to weaken dependence upon anything hu- 
man, and to induce every one to take his own 
spiritual responsibility upon himself. The deliv- 
erances of this Divine grace were at first slight 
and obscure, but obedience brought clearness of 



12 A Qual-er Experiment in Government. 

perception and deiiniteness of understanding, till 
the habit was begotten of living in the continual 
experience of its guidance and discipline. 

Such men could not fail to be democrats in 
the ordinary affairs of life. Because many made 
a distinction in rank, by addressing some with a 
you and others with a theej they testified against 
inequality by using the singular pronoun to all. 
Because in the obsequiousness of the manners 
of the day, men Avould bow to the great and 
scorn the poor, they bowed to none. Because 
the newly imported doffing of the hat was only 
given to those in high place, the Quaker's hat 
stayed on his head in the presence of King and 
courtier, priest, judge and magistrate.^ The 
doctrine of human equality Avas to them more 
than a theory; it was a principle to be incorpo- 
rated with their social and political institutions, 
to go to jail for, if need be to die for. 

The same principles determined their manner 
of worship. Discarding all sacraments as tend- 
ing to obscure the brightness of the spiritual 



* " My friend Penn came there, Will Penn the Quaker, at 
the head of his brethren to thank tlie Duke (Ormond) for 
his kindness to the people of Ireland. To see a dozen 
scoundrels with their hats on, and the Duke compliment 
ing with his hat off, Avas a good sight enough."— Swift to 
Stella, January 15th. 1712. 



The Quakers in England. 13 

baptism and cominuiiiuii wliicli above all things 
they desired, they met not to hear preaching or 
sacred music or emotional human impulses, or 
to take part in ritual or ceremony, but to hear 
the words of God as they came directly to the 
waiting heart, or mediately through an inspired 
messenger. Without preparation, each one be- 
lieving in his own capacity for priestly approach 
to the source of all truth and instruction and 
comfort, they sat in silence to await whatever 
influences came to their souls, and so real was 
this communion that there are frequent accounts 
of meetings of entirely wordless worship, where 
there was such tender union of spirit that the 
floor was wet with their overflowing tears, their 
hearts were strengthened and confirmed in their 
Divine Master, and they were braced to stand 
with quietness and fortitude all the trials of 
their persecuted life. 

Their morality was based on the New rather 
than the Old Testament, and they accepted the 
current views as to its inspiration and authority. 
The Sermon on the ^fount, if not in every re- 
spect a literal standard of conduct, was not to bo 
explained away as a millennial model only, but 
as something to be obeyed in this present world. 
But here a2:ain all Biblical truth was in one re- 



14 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

spect subordinate to the voice of direct revelation, 
to which it owed its origin. It was permitted to 
use it to test the validity of professed inspiration, 
for the Divine teaching must be consistent with 
itself. It was of unquestioned authority, but the 
proper application of its rules could only be 
made by the same Spirit who gave it birth. 

From the Bible, therefore, thus interpreted, 
the Friends derived their ethical ideas. It told 
them " Swear not at all,'' and that command 
they accepted unquestioningly and absolutely. 
Again, its direct teaching and whole spirit testi- 
fied against war and fighting and in favor of 
love and forgiveness, and they refused all par- 
ticipation direct or, so far as they could, indirect 
in any war or warlike measures. It exalted the 
spiritual over the temporal, and they preached 
much and practiced much the greatest simplicity 
of dress, furniture and living. It exhorted 
obedience to government, and here they had a 
difficult task. For the government of the day 
commanded disobedience to their principles and, 
not following the teaching of Hobbes, then 
newly given to the world, they continuously dis- 
regarded its commands. 

As Peter affirmed before the Sanhedrin, " "We 
ought to obey God rather than man," as Socrates 



The Quakers in England. 15 

declared before his judges, " Athenians, I will 
obey God rather than yon," so when the slightest 
point of conscience was done violence to by law 
or human command, to the Eriend it became as 
the apple of his eye, and no power on earth could 
require its violation. They obeyed the law 
which demanded their appearance at court on an 
unrighteous charge, or which detained them in 
a jail with open doors, when the authorities evi- 
dently hoped to be rid by inadvertence of a 
troublesome prisoner, but the conventicle act in- 
terfering with their religious worship had no 
validity for them. Deprived on trifling pre- 
tenses of all the rights of Englishmen, they 
never in an age of plotting did anything to jus- 
tify the government in any suspicions as to their 
loyalty; but the legal requirement of an oath 
of allegiance was refused with the assurance of 
perfect rectitude. " Where we cannot actually 
obey we patiently suffer," says William Penn. 
and such was their consistent attitude. 

It is surprising that a people so just as the 
English have generally proved themselves to be 
should have consented for so long a time to the 
severe persecutions of their pacific, conscientious 
fellow-citizens. It was very easy in those days 
to find excuses, legal and otherwise, to fine and 



16 A Qual-er Experiment in Government. 

imprison them. They would not pay tithes to 
j^upport a religion of which they disapproved, 
and hence incurred the enmity of the ecclesias- 
tical Presbyterians and Independents of the 
Commonwealth, and the ecclesisistical Episcopa- 
lians of the later Stuarts. Their goods were dis- 
trained in extravagant amounts, and they were 
brought into court. Once there it w^as very easy 
to fine them for contempt for not removing the 
hat and to send them to jail till the fine was paid, 
which it would never be Avith their consent; or 
to require them to take an oath of alle- 
giance, always in order, which would re- 
sult in a similar imprisonment. The Con- 
venticle act of the reign of Charles II., 
prohibiting more than five persons outside the 
resident family to meet together except accord- 
ing to the forms of the Church of England, they 
most persistently disobeyed, and went wholesale 
to jail, to be followed next meeting day by the 
children, w^ho kept up the assemblies, in the 
meeting houses, on their rnins, or in the street 
as near as the officers' presence would permit.* 
The foulness of the dungeons into which they 

* After explaining how easy it -was to break up the wor- 
ship of other denominations by abstracting some of their 
machinery, Masson says: "Not so a Quakers' meeting, 
where men and women were worshipping with their hearts 



The Quakers in England. 17 

were cast, the cruelties of jailers, the impoverish- 
ment of families, produced untold sufferings, 
but cemented the Society in a strong family 

and without implements, in silence as well as in speech. 
You may break in upon them, hoot at them, roar at them, 
drag them about; the meeting, it' it is of any size, essen- 
tially still goes on till all the component individuals are 
murdered. Throw them out of the door in twos and 
threes, and they but re-enter at the window, and quietly 
resume their places. Pull their meeting-house down, and 
they re-assemble next day most punctually amid the 
broken walls and rafters. Shovel sand or earth upon them, 
and there they still sit, a sight to see, musing immovably 
among the rubbish. This is no description from fancy. 
It was the actual practice of the Quakers all over the 
country. They held their meetings regularly, persever- 
ingly, and without the least concealment, keeping the doors 
of their meeting-houses purposely open, that all might en- 
ter, informers, constables, or soldiers, and do whatever 
they chose. In fact, the Quakers behaved magnificently. 
By their peculiar method of open violation of the law, and 
passive resistance only, they rendered a service to the 
common cause of all nonconformist sects which has never 
been sufficiently acknoAvledged. The authorities had begun 
to fear them as a kind of supernatural folk, and knew not 
what to do with them, but cram them into gaols, and let 
them lie there. In fact, the gaols in those days were less 
places of punishment for criminals than receptacles for a 
great proportion of what was bravest and most excellent 
in the manhood and womanhood of England." — Masson's 
" Life of John Milton and History of His Time," VI., 
587-8. 

" We shall engage by Ood's assistance to lead peaceable, 
just and industrious lives amongst men, to the good and 
example of all. Put if after all we have said, sufferings 
should be the present lot of our inheritance from this gen- 



18 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

feeling. They volunteered to serve out each 
other's sentences in jail,* they aided whenever 
possible, and finally organized the Meeting for 
Sufferings, under which peculiar title the repre- 

eration, be it known to them all — That meet we must and 
meet we can not but encourage all to do (whatever we sus- 
tain) in God's name and authority, who is Lord of Hosts 
and King of Kings."— William Penn, *' The Great Case of 
Liberty of Conscience." 

* " In love to our brethren that lie in prisons and houses 
of correction and dungeons, and many in fetters and 
irons and have been cruelly beat by the cruel gaolers, and 
many have been persecuted to death and have died in 
prisons and on straw " we " do offer up our bodies and 
selves to you for to put us as lambs, into the same dun- 
geons and houses of correction, and their straw and nasty 
holes and prisons and do stand ready a sacrifice for to go 
into their places that they may go forth and not die n\ 
prison as many of the brethren are dead already. For 
we are willing to lay down our lives for our brethren and 
to take their sufferings upon us that you would inflict 
on them. . . . And if you will receive our bodies 
which we freely tender to you for our Friends that are 
now in prison for speaking the truth in several places; 
for not paying tithes; for meeting together in the feai 
of God; for not swearing; for wearing their hats; for 
being accounted as vagrants; for visiting Friends and 
for things of a like nature: We whose names are here- 
unto subscribed, being a sufficient number are waiting in 
Westminster-hall for an answer from you to us, to answer 
our tenders and to manifest our love to our Friends and 
to stop the wrath and judgment from coming to our en- 
emies." Among this noble band of men who thus offered 
themselves to Parliament were some who were aftei-warda 
settlers in Pennsylvania. 



The Quakers in England. 19 

sentative body of the Yearly Meeting still exists 
in London and Philadelphia. 

In 1680 William Penn and two others pre- 
sented to King and Parliament a compilation of 
their sult'erings. Ten thousand had been in 
prison, and 243 had died there, mainly from 
cruel usage. Two-thirds of the estates of a large 
number had been confiscated under the plea that 
they were Papists in disguise. Exorbitant fines had 
been imposed in other cases. As many as 4,000 
were in jail at one time a little later than this, 
and there seemed but little prospect of the trou- 
ble abating. ISTor had there been any effect, so 
far as stopping Quakerism was concerned. The 
Society was growing rapidly, and every one of 
the persecuted had practically said with William 
Penn, '' My prison shall be my grave before I 
Avill budge a jot, for I owe obedience of my con- 
science to no mortal man." 

Such was the man to whom was given Penn- 
sylvania as a means of extinguishing an old debt 
of 16,000 pounds owed him by the Crown, and 
who was accorded quite large liberty in deter- 
mining the nature of its government. Such 
were the people upon whom he depended to form 
the nucleus 'of his settlement and give it char- 
acter. 



20 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

Those who emigrated were mainly, but not ex- 
clusively, English yeomen — tillers of the soil, 
w^ho found in Pennsylvania not only a congenial 
political atmosphere, but fertile lands which they 
knew how to improve. They very largely appro- 
priated to themselves the country along the west 
side of the Delaware River from Trenton to Wil- 
mington, and founded the cities of Philadelphia 
and Chester. That they retained the same char- 
acteristics in the T^ew World they had devel- 
oped in the Old, and added to them the more 
active qualities w^hich come from the assumption 
of the responsibilities of government, will be 
evident as we proceed. 



Tlie Quakers' in Early Pennsylvania. 21 
CHAPTER III. 

THE QUAKERS IN EARLY PENNSYLVANIA. 

The organization of the Society of Friends ex- 
isting in England was reproduced in America. 
It was due to the good sense and practical genius 
of George Fox, and was probably worked out 
during his cruel imprisonment of nearly three 
years in Lancaster and Scarboro jails. The 
central authority, at first representative, ulti- 
mately became an assembly of all members of 
the Society, the men and women meeting as dif- 
ferent bodies. This constituted the Yearly 
Meeting. The Quarterly Meetings reported to 
this, and were in turn divided into Monthly 
Meetings, the real working bodies of the organi- 
zation, in matters relating to the individual 
members. The Monthly Meeting undertook 
to see that justice was done between man and 
man, that disputes were settled, that the poor 
were supported, that delinquents', wdiether as to 
the Society's own rules or those of the State, 
were reformed, or if reformation seemed im- 
possible, were " disowned " by the Society, that 
applicants for membership were tested and 



22 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

finally, if satisfactory, received, that all the chil- 
dren were educated, that certificates of good 
standing were granted to members changing 
their abodes, that marriages and burials were 
simply and properly performed, and that records 
were fully and accurately kept. Under these 
were the Preparative Meetings. 

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting dates back to 
1681, when a number of Friends met at Burling- 
ton on "the 31st day of the 6th month " (Aug- 
ust). Oscillating for a time between Burlington 
and Philadelphia, it finally settled down to reg- 
ular sessions in Penn's city. The territory em- 
braced monthly meetings on both sides of the 
Delaware River, in 'New Jersey, Delaware and 
Pennsylvania, and later some in Maryland. 

Had all the inhabitants been Friends and 
amenable to their discipline, very little civil gov- 
ernment would have been needed in internal 
afi'airs. The work of the legislature might have 
been devoted mainly to questions involving 
titles, etc., to property, and courts of law would 
have been shorn of nearly all their criminal and 
much of their civil business, while sheriffs and 
policemen, jails and punishments might almost 
have been omitted as unnecessar)^ Indeed, this 
was practically the case for some decades in 



The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 23 

Pennsylvania, in country districts where the 
Quaker element constituted nearly the whole 
population.* 

The Friends had a testimony against courts of 
law, at least till all other methods had been tried. 
They provided tribunals of their own, unbound 
by any legal trammels, to decide differences 
among Friends by considerations of the equities 
of each particular case.f Such decisions cost 



The flock committed to my charge is indeed small, 
but God be thanked generally sound, which is as much an 
can well be expected, considering the genius of the bulk 
of the people among whom we live. I need not tell you 
that Quakerism is generally preferred in Pennsylvania, and 
in no county of the province does the haughty tribe ap- 
pear more rampant than where I reside (Chester), there 
being by a modest computation 20 Quakers besides dis- 
senters to one true church-man." — December 30th, 1712, 
" Papers Relating to the Church in Pennsylvania," page 69. 

t " That if any personal difference doth arise among 
Friends, that they may be speedily advised to refer it to 
one or two honest Friends, and if it cannot be ended, then 
to lay it before the preparative meetings to whom they 
belong for the speedy ending of the same." — Chester Quar- 
terly ]\Teeting Minutes, 3, IX., 1701. In these minutes the 
old spelling is not followed. 

" It's the sense and agreement of this meeting according 
to the agreement of the Yearly Meeting of London in the 
year 1697, when any Friends have any difference one with 
the other (if they do not agree it between themselves) that 
they first speedily refer it to indifferent, impartial, and 
judicious friends, mutually chosen between them, and to 



24 A Quaker Experiment m Goverriment. 

nothing, arrived at substantial justice, and left 
the disputants in an amicable frame of mind 
towards each other and the arbitrators. The early 
minutes of the monthly and quarterly meet- 
ings contain abundance of descriptions of such 
cases. After tracing the matter through several 
successive meetings, the account usually ends 
with the statement that all parties are satisfied.* 
This result was the more easily arrived at be- 



stand to their award if they agree to make any, but if 
they do not agree, then either party may have liberty to 
bring their said difference to the preparative meetings to 
which both of them belong, and if they do not end it in 
mutual satisfaction, then they may have liberty to appeal 
to the monthly meeting, and so farther." — Ibid., 2, IX., 
1702. 

* . . . " Difference between C. E, of one party and G. H. 
and R. W. of the other party, about the throwing down 
of some old ruins of a mill dam, Avhich difference was de- 
bated in this meeting, and the said parties mutually re- 
ferring the determination thereof to the meeting, which is 
that C. E. shall pay the court charges on G. H.'s account 
and two-thirds of the charges on R. W.'s account, and that 
G. H. and R. W. acknowledge that they were too forward 
in doing what they did without the said C. E.'s leave; and 
that the said C. E. shall acknowledge to this meeting his 
forwardness in prosecuting of them by law without the 
consent of the meeting. They jointly acknowledge their 
satisfaction."— Chester Quarterly Meeting, 7, VT., 1699. 

" L. B. brought in his paper of condemnation for quar- 
reling and fighting with some of the servants; and at his 
request it was read and accepted, and he advised to read it 



21ie Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 25 

cause in most quarrels errors exist on both sides, 
sometimes of action, sometimes only of lia^ty or 
derogatory words, and all parties could be in- 
duced not only to make financial restitution, but 
also to present the proper apologies and admis- 
sions. It is these small occasions of difference 
which often seriously mar the good fellowship 
of a neighborhood, and the plan of the Friends 
was admirably adapted to settle them in their 



according both in the meeting and court."— Bucks Quar- 
terly Meeting, 1684. 

*' complain against some of our young Friends to 

assenting and assisting to a forward and unadvised action 
in going to correct a man for beating his wife, which prac- 
tice is contrary to our principles; for which the said per- 
sons have offered their acknowledgment for their offence, 
which is accepted." — Concord jVIonthly Meeting, 1740. 

'' The difference between J. K. and W. W. offered to 
the meeting in order to compose the same. W. W. ac- 
knowledgeth he spoke foolishly in comparing him to a 
London pickpocket and the like, and sorry for the same, 
which J. R. did accept of, desiring and intending hereby 
that there be an end of strife from the beginning to this 
day."— Chester Monthly Meeting, 6, IX., 1686. 

" Friends,— Whereas I contended witli my neighbor for 
what I apprehended to be my right, by endeavoring to turn 
a certain stream of water into its natural courise, till it 
arose to a personal difference; in which dispute I gave way 
to a warmth of temper, so far as to put my friend into the 
pond; for which action of mine, being contrary to the 
good order of Friends, I am sorry, and desire through 
Divine assistance to live in unity with him for the future." 
— Wilmington Monthly Meeting, 1751. 



26 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

initial stages. Should the arbitrament be re- 
fused, there remained only the recourse of sepa- 
ration from the Society; but this was only re- 
sorted to after every endeavor was made for 
months together to bring the offenders to terms. 
In rare cases it was necessary to have a judicial 
decision, especially where one party was not a 
member.* 

The business matters of Friends were looked 
into, where any possibility of danger existed. 
It was felt that the body had a responsibility for 
the conduct of each individual which it could 
not evade. f Most cautiously was the duty per- 
formed. Advice was offered by "concerned 
Friends ''; finally the power of the meeting was 
invoked, and only after months of earnest labor 
in the case of a refractory member was " disown- 



* " J. C. having not made satisfaction according to the 
last monthly meeting's order, therefore this meeting leaves 
J. W. to his liberty to take his course with him at Jaw."— 
Chester Monthly Meeting. 

t " Puisuant to an order from the Quarterly Meeting 

this meeting appoints and to inspect into 

the concerns of Friends whom they have any suspicion of 
going backwards in their outward concerns, so as to bring 
reproach upon Truth and damage to the creditors." — Ches^ 
ter Monthly Meeting, 25, X., 1710. 



The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 27 

ment " resorted to. The advice^" of the higher 
meetings finally crystallized into a requirement 
for each monthly meeting to answer three times 
a year, plainly and honestly, the query, "Are 
Friends punctual to their promises and just in 
the payment of their debts? " A man observed 
to be going into business beyond his ability to 
manage, or so largely as to detract from his at- 
tention to meeting matters, was warned in ad- 
vance of a possible calamity, and often saved 
himself, f All preference to creditors or ten- 
dency to save anything from a business failure 
was sufficient cause for extended " labour " on 
the part of Friends, to be followed either by re- 
pentance or disownment. 

Nor were moral delinquencies which involved 
directly the offender only ever passed over if 
they came to the ears of the meeting. The 
early records contain but little reference to any- 

* "Advised that all Friends be very careful in making 
and vending all provisions and other commodities for 
transportation, taking care that the same be good and of 
due fineness, measure and weight." — Yearly Meeting, 1713. 

t " Inasmuch as I have bought a piece of land in Chester 
contrary to the advice of Friends, for which I am sorry, 
and acknowledge I should not have done it."— Chester 
Monthly Meeting, 27, XI., 1693. 



28 A Quake?- Experiment in Government. 

thing of the sort, being mostly taken up with 
getting the young people married according to 
the Quaker order. The original immigrants, 
brought together by convictions of stern 
duty under the persecutions of England, 
were not likely to indulge in any libertin- 
ism. Others, however, of a different sort 
came with them. It is known that very early in 
the history of the colony, the caves in the banks 
along the Delaware, made by the settlers while 
building their houses, became the resort of a 
class whose loose life greatly disturbed the or- 
derly Quakers. The birthright idea brought a 
second generation of Friends upon the scene 
who had not endured the discipline of their 
fathers. These were in some cases infected by 
the influences around them. There are many 
evidences that Friends were alert to the dangers 
which seenied to be growing up.* The meetings 



* " We find a pressing concern earnestly to excite all our 
dear Friends, brethren and sisters, seriously to consider 
the state of things in this land, so lately a wilderness. 
When on the one hand we look back to the many bless- 
ings w^e have received, and the protection and peace we 
have enjoyed, how greatly doth it concern us to be hum- 
bled before the Almighty, and with grateful hearts take 
due heed to our walking before him; and on the other 
hand, when we take a view of the great increase of the 
people, and consider how many among them appear regard- 



llie Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 29 

brought all possible influence to bear *on their 
Quaker Assembly to abate immorality. This 
Assembly did not seem at all unwilling to do 
what it could, and while not going quite to the 
length of the Puritan New Englanders, kept in 
operation laws against gambling, cards and dice, 
theatres, swearing, lying and drunkenness. 

But the main duty of the meeting was to the 
individual offenders. After a few decades the 
Monthly Meeting minutes begin to show cases, 
not a few in the aggregate, of drnnkenness and 
its attendant brawls, and also of personal im- 
morality of other sorts, which were treated with 
the greatest plainness. The first record would 
be in the nature of a complaint of a preparative 
meeting that A. B. had been guilty of a defi- 
nitely named offence, for which his or her friends 
had labored earnestly without avail to induce 
repentance, acknowledgment and reformation. 

less of religion, probity and virtue, who seem to combine in 
an uncommon manner to rush into immoralities and tu- 
multuous practices, using many artful means to draAV 
others to fall in with them, and the more perhaps because 
of the number of Friends who are inhabitants here, and 
that some are concerned in the government, by this means, 
since they can not persecute them as in times past, to give 
them trouble of another sort — how very careful ought we 
to be to oppose and discourage them as much is in us lies." 
—Yearly Meeting, 1726. 



30 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

The meeting then appointed a committee to con- 
tinue the efforts. If there seemed any hope they 
were continued, month by month, or a new one 
appointed. In some instances the same name 
again appeared in a little time in a responsible 
position, — overseer or minister,"^ — showing how 
completely he had rehabilitated himself. Such 
a retention was always preceded by a written 
acknowledgment of error and sorrow, which, if 
accepted as sincere, was read in public in the 
home meeting on " First-day." Perhaps in a 
greater number of cases the offender was con- 
sidered irreclaimable, and '' to clear the Truth 
and Friends from reproach/' a committee would 
be appointed '' to draw up a testimony against 
him and produce it to next meeting." At the 
next meeting the testimony which separated him 
from membership would be read and approved 
and another committee appointed " to read it at 

meeting on a First-day." 

This course of discipline preserved to a re- 
markable extent the business and moral standing 
of the Society. By reforming some delinquents 
and excluding the others, a body was pre- 



* Michener's " Retrospect of Early Quakerism/' page 
324. 



The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 31 

served in substantial harmony with the original 
ideals. It had the additional effect of enabling 
Friends to face squarely and honestly every 
moral reform as it rose. They did not blind 
themselves to the evils of slavery, or injustice to 
the Indians, or war, or intemperance by any spe- 
cious pleas of Biblical authority or financial or 
national expediency. They saw the evil only, 
and struck it straight in the face. Forbearing 
to the last degree wdth offenders, they admitted 
of no compromise with any system involving 
wrong to humanity. The history of the growth 
of the anti-slavery sentiment has been often told, 
but so far as it concerns our Pennsylvania 
Friends, it may be repeated as an illustration of 
the effective way in. which they cleared them- 
selves by their admirable discipline of the evil 
before they launched their corporate testimony 
against an hostile nation. 

The earliest minutes contain cautions against 
abuse of slaves, and advice to see that they be 
treated as human beings. In 1688, the German 
Quakers of Germantown memorialized the 
Yearly Meeting in a paper still in existence 
against " the buying and keeping of negroes.'' 
The meeting was not ready to act, but the move- 
ment was working its way among the sensitive 



32 A Qual'er Experiment in Government. 

consciences of its members. In 1696 they ad- 
vised against '' bringing in any more negroes." 
Chester QnartcrlyMecting sent in nnmerous me- 
morials requesting positive action, but many 
wealthy Friends were slaveholders, and many 
saw no evil in the established system, no doubt 
leniently interpreted among them, and save 
general exhortation against slRYe-dealing, the 
Yearly fleeting could not be brought to a defi- 
nite position till 1758. That year saw two 
memorable minutes adopted with substantial 
unanimity; one required Friends to give up all 
civil offices in which "' they think they must en- 
join the compliance of their brethren or others 
wdth any act which they conscientiously scruple 
to perform " (meaning especially places in the 
Assembly); the other went to the root of the 
matter of slavery, and not content with a decla- 
ration against dealing in slaves, as some urged, 
declared that Friends were '^to set them at liberty, 
making a Christian provision for them," and ap- 
pointed a committee to visit all slaveholders to 
induce compliance. They were largely success- 
ful, 'aided as they were by sympathizing Friends 
in the various meetings. But a considerable 
number held out, and in 1774 sentiment was so 
advanced as to call out a more emphatic con- 



The Quakers in Early Penusylvania. 33 

demnation of all slave-holding. In 1776 a dec- 
laration of independence for all slaves held by 
Friends was decreed, and monthly meetings 
were directed, after proper effort, to exclude 
from membership all Quakers who refused to 
comply. How faithfully yet how tenderly the 
work w^as done, while the Revolutionary War 
raged around them, the records of 1776 and 
1777 in nearly every meeting testify. 

But the Quaker sense of right was not yet 
satisfied. In 1779 the Yearly Meeting con- 
cluded that something was owing to the slaves 
for their past services. " The state of the op- 
pressed people who have been held by any of us 
in captivity and slavery calls for a deep inquiry 
and close examination how far we are clear of 
withholding from them what under such an exer- 
cise may open to view as their just right." The 
matter was placed on the basis of justice, not of 
charity, and many former owners voluntarily 
paid an amount, adjudged by impartial umpires 
to be fair, as the recompense for unrequited 
labors. 

Not only did the meetings relieve the State 
of a large part of its criminal procedures, but 
they also agreed to succor all, among their own 
members, in poverty and suffering. Much of 



34 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

this was done quietly, but many cases came to 
the meetings and are on record."" Sometimes 
money was raised, at others personal attention 
Avas directed, and as there were no hospitals. 
Friends' houses and lands were nsed.f 



* " Ordered that Caleb Pusey and Walter Faucett take 
care to hire a cow for the widow Rudman, and the quar- 
terly meeting are obliged to answer them 30s/' — Chester 
Monthly Meeting, 6, III., 1689. 

" The condition of J. C, a Friend of Bucks County, be- 
ing laid before this meeting, having lost by fire to the 
value of 162 pounds, this meeting orders that a collection 
be settled in each particular First Day's meeting, and two 
appointed to receive them."— Ibid., 2, IX., 1691. The prac- 
tice of First-day collections for special cases was general in 
those days. 

t " This meeting having taken into consideration the con- 
dition of T. N., he being generally weak and having a 
great family of small children, and living very remote from 
neighbors, it is agreed that he is to remove for the reasons 
aforesaid, and settle down upon the lands of B. C, Jr., 
having given his consent." — Ibid., 6, XII., 1692. 

" J. P., being in necessity of a cow, having lost one, 
and being in necessity of milk for his children, this meet- 
ing have lent him £5 for one year to buy one." — Concord 
Monthly Meeting, 1699. 

" Information being given this meeting that W. P. is 

very poor and in necessity, this meeting orders to 

get a good pair of leather ' briches ' and a good warm coat 
and waistcoat, one pair of stockings and shoes, and make 



The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 35 

Nor did cases near at hand and of their own 
Society alone demand their attention, but we 
find collections taken up for captives among the 
Turks as early as 1691, when many of the donors 
had just reached the country.* 

The ideas of these Pennsylvania Quakers on 
the subject of education were not very exalted. 
Among those who came over from England 
there w^ere, besides Penn, several university men 
of high attainments, like Thomas Lloyd and 
James Logan. The great majority were com- 
mon people very ordinarily educated, and they 
did not set any great value on the higher train- 
ing. They did not, as did the l^ew England 
settlers, have a college in the first score of years, 
because they lacked the incentive which most 
strongly influenced the Puritans. According to 
them the ministry did not depend on educa- 
tion, and in the minds of many of them, it was 
no better, perhaps worse, for its presence. Then 



a report of the charge to next meeting." — Palls Monthly 
Meeting, 1701. 

" Our preparative meeting having agreed with A. F. to 
keep N. j\L one year with sufficient meat, drink, washing, 
shaving, and leading him to meetings for £15, 10s." — Wil- 
mington Monthly Meeting. 

* Chester Quarterly Meeting, 1, XII., 169i. 



3G A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

the classic languages were heathen, the modern 
tongues frivolous. They had no place for art 
or music. The range of possible education was 
therefore greatly restricted. The number of 
self-educated mathematicians and naturalists 
(chiefly botanists) who grew up among them was 
rather remarkable. But aside from this the 
education of those born in this country in the 
second and third generations was limited in 
scope and amount. There were no colleges ex- 
cept Harvard and Yale, and they were distant 
and alien. The medical was the only profes- 
sion demanding much training, and except in 
this one field, there was but little high culture 
among them. It was not till 1856 that the first 
Quaker college was in operation. 

What they lacked in the higher education 
they made up in the lower. As with crime and 
pauperism, they took the elementary training of 
their children in their own special care. Penn 
well knew the value of education. In his letter 
of instructions to his wife he wrote about his 
children: "For their learning be liberal. Spare 
no cost; for by such parsimony all is lost that is 
saved." In the first laws of the Province Ave 
find, " To the end that the poor as well as the 



The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 37 

rich may be instructed in good and commendable 
learning, which is to be preferred before wealth, 
— Be it enacted that all persons .... having 
children .... shall cause such to be instructed 
in reading and writing, so that they may be able 
to read the Scriptures and to write by the time 
they attain to twelve years of age, and that then 
they be taught some useful trade or skill." Then 
follows a penalty of £5 for failure to secure this 
attainment. In 1683 the Governor and Council 
employed Enoch Flower on the following terms : 
" To learne to read English 4s. by ye Quarter, to 
learne to read and rite 6s. by ye Quarter, write 
and cast accots 8s. by ye Quarter; for boarding 
a scholar, that is to say, dyet, washing, lodging 
and Scooling, Tenn pounds for one whole 
year."* 

In 1697 was chartered the "Public School," 
intended to be a Latin school of considerable ad- 
vancement after the fashion of an English gram- 
mar school, which now exists under the name of 
the "William Penn Charter School." There 
were a number of branches over the city, and 
free scholarships were established to give the 

•Colonial Records, Vol. I., page 36. 



38 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

poor a fair chance to secure its advantages.* In 
the same year the Yearly Meeting says: " Meet- 
ings for the education of youth are settled in 
most counties except Bucks, Shrewsbury (N. J.), 
and Salem (N. J.). 

Advices began to go down to the subordinate 
meetings, the burden of which was that Friends 
should see to it that all children should be taught 
" to read and write and some further useful 
learning,'^ f and that teachers should also be 
" careful in the wisdom of God and a spirit of 
meekness gradually to bring them to a knowl- 
edge of their duty to God and one another.":]: 

These schools were not free schools, but the 
idea of mutual aid extended to education as 
well as to bodily distress, and probably nearly all 

* " They (Quakers) have endowed a school with 80 
pounds per annum, which is in effect to blast my endeav- 
ors/' — J. Arrowsmith, March 26th, 1698. " Papers Relat- 
ing to the American Church, Pennsylvania," page 7. 

" They are establishing a free school for the growth of 
Quakerism and apostacy." — Robert Suder, November 20th, 
1698. Ibid., page 11. 

t " Our greatest want is a schoolmaster to instruct our 
children and youth, which we are obliged to see corrupted 
with the base principles they must needs suck in from 
Quaker masters and mistresses." — " Ministry and Vestry of 
Chester, alias Uplands, 1704." Ibid., page 23. 

t Yearly Meeting, 1746. 



The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 39 

children received this elementary opportunity. 
It became a matter of comment that Quakers 
were the best educated people of the counties. 
It was as rare to lind an entirely ignorant mem- 
ber as a poverty-stricken one. A number of 
private academies gave the well-to-do a better 
chance, and as a result the average mental de- 
velopment was not low. But it was a great loss 
to them and their successors that there were 
not, as in Xew England, a few highly educated 
men in each community to stimulate the in- 
tellectual life, and university opportunities to 
satisfy it. 

But though without this advantage, a moral 
poise and a tenderness of spirit preserved them 
from some Puritan delusions. They never per- 
secuted. There was only one trial for witch- 
craft in the colony. In 1683 a poor woman had 
the usual accusations of bewitching cattle 
brought against her. She was tried by jury, the 
evidence soberly sifted, its absurdity proven, and 
the jury brought in the verdict, " Guilty of hav- 
ing the common fame of a witch, but not guilty 
in manner and forme as she stands indicted."* 
IN^o other witch got so far as to court. Nine 

* Colonial Records, Vol. I., pages 40-41. 



40 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

years later they were hanging them in Massa- 
chn setts. 

There is a long minute of instructions among 
the records of Chester Quarterly Meeting in 
1695 against those " who, professing astrology, 
have undertaken thereby to give answers and 
astrological judgments concerning persons and 
things, to the dishonor of God and the reproach 
of the Truth," also against " rhabdomancy, or 
consulting with a staff." Those who used them 
were required to bring all books into the 
Monthly Meetings or take the penalty of having 
" testimony given against them." Several were 
thus put through the disciplinary process,* and 
sorcery disappeared. 

Another contrast to ^ew England was the ab- 
sence of any hierarchy. It often happened that 
ministers and men prominent in the meeting 
were also members of the Council or Assembly, 
or held judicial stations, but the connection was 
only accidental. In no meeting record, so far as 
a somewhat careful examination has revealed. 



* J. T. offered an acknowledgment " for going to a man 
to be informed concerning my horse. I can truly say I had 
no desire he should use any bad art in the affair. Like- 
wise was ignorant of Friends' rules; but hope not to fall 
into the like again."— Concord Monthly Meeting, 1738. 



The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 41 

was there ever any attempt to influence legisla- 
tion for any political purpose. Whenever the 
laws touched the consciences of the members, 
the old English spirit instantly revived, and ad- 
vices were given, not to go into politics as re- 
formers, but to suffer as martyrs rather than 
bring " reproach upon Truth." Indeed there 
<eemed evidences under the surface^ but becom- 
ing more open near the middle of the eighteenth 
century, of a breach between those who ruled 
the policy of the meetings and those who were 
honored by their constituents with public office. 
A sentiment was growing up that the activities 
of public life were unfavorable to that introver- 
sion of thought and quietness of spirit necessary 
for the highest development of spiritual life. A 
touch of asceticism was revealed in the charac- 
ters of the men whose voices had most " weight " 
in the yearly assemblies. These had no presid- 
ing officer, and took no votes. The clerk re- 
corded the evident judgment of the meeting, 
(every adult member being permitted to be pres- 
ent), after a temperate and quiet discussion, car- 
ried on, as they believed, under the immediate 
guidance of a Divine Power. In such a discus- 
sion the subdued and infrequent words of a man 
known to be living in close communion with 



42 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

God, and evidently speaking under a convic- 
tion of duty, outweighed thie most learned or 
eloquent speech of a secular orator. I^ot elo- 
quence, not education, not business success or 
worldly wisdom availed against a simple, sincere 
utterance of unreasoned, but not necessarily un- 
reasonable, conviction. The contrast between 
the qualities of the Quaker ecclesiastic and the 
politician would inevitably draw different tem- 
peraments into the different stations. Some, 
like William Penn, might combine the two, but 
in many cases a line would be drawn growing 
more and more definite as the century advanced. 
Ultimately the ecclesiastical Quaker triumphed 
over the political, and the body settled down into 
a growing conviction that for them obedience to 
righteous law^s and passive resistance to unright- 
eous ones constituted the burden of a Friend's 
duty to the government. 

Such was in imperfect outline the character 
of the sect into whose hands the government of 
Pennsylvania was committed. There were in 
Philadelphia a number of men successful in com- 
merce or profession whose families were better 
educated and who did not live such simple lives 
as their country brethren. It was the latter, how- 
ever, by virtue of numbers and probably, also, of 



The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 43 

spiritual power, which set their stamp upon 
Quakerism, and which deserve to be taken as the 
prevailing type. They were earnest men of 
quiet but strong convictions. Absolutely un- 
compromising in matters of principle they, per- 
haps, made the mistake occasionally of exalting 
custom to the level of principle. They knew 
very definitely what they believed, though they 
admitted no creed but the Bible, and asked no 
one to sign any articles. Quakerism was to 
them a life, not a set of beliefs. They required 
spiritual enduement as well as convincement as 
a qualification for reception into membership, 
still more for official station. Of infinite 
tenderness and forgiveness toward offenders, 
they refused all implication with sin. They 
demanded righteousness as sternly as the Old 
Testament and charity as perennial as the New. 
They possessed large ideas, — universal peace, 
civil and religious liberty, the embodiment in so- 
ciety of the Sermon on the Mount, — but many 
of them held these in rather a small way. 
Beaten into them by English persecution were 
the testimonies of the seventeenth century 
Friends, and in some respects they failed to make 
the necessary eighteenth century adjustment, 
but their sincerity destroyed hypocrisy, and the 



44 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

sweetness of their lives exterminated bitterness. 
That which prevailed in meetings was honest 
simplicity and consistent integrity. 

Their ruling power in relation to government 
was their conscience divinely instructed. This 
called for obedience, for reverence, for submis- 
sion. They were thus the most peace-loving and 
peaceable of subjects, restraining themselves and 
their froward brethren ; insisting on the full per- 
formance of all governmental duties;* but back 
of this it was perfectly known that legislation 
offensive to their convictions would be met by a 
resistance absolutely invulnerable, requiring 
more bravery than an open armed fight, and en- 
tirely sufficient in itself in time to conquer the 
offending legislation. 

Political life was to them not an absorbing 



* " That inasmuch as some amongst us have refused to 
pay their respective Levies in this county to the support 
of Government and County charges, this meeting having 
taken the same into their serious consideration, do con- 
clude as foUoweth: That whereas we have been always 
ready and willing to assist and support civil government, 
do order that all be advised not to refuse the paying of any 
Levy lawfully demanded, and if any person be heady and 
stubborn, and not take advise by the Brethren, let them 
be speedily dealt with according to Gospel order, that so 
our holy profession may be quit of them and Truth kept 
clear."— Chester Quarterly Meeting, 3, VL, 1702. 



The Quakers in Early Pennsylvania. 45 

question. They had their duty to perform in 
Pennsylvania and they meant to do it, but 
around all such questions flowed the higher life 
they desired to live, which found expression in 
their calm meditation, their communion with 
their brethren and their God, at home and in 
meeting, their quiet but active furtherance of 
moral reforms. They did not care for govern- 
ment, most of them did not need any; they 
wanted to lead unambitious lives of attention to 
domestic and religious duty. They prospered in 
business. The great, homelike houses and capa- 
cious barns of the Quaker counties are sufficient 
evidence of this. Their religion cost nothing of 
consequence, and it is possible their liberality 
did not always grow with their sense of justice 
and other virtues. 

Their Assemblymen did not ask their support. 
They asked their best equipped men to go to the 
Assembly and kept them there for years, — 
thirty, in two cases at least. These men truly 
represented their constituencies, their strength 
and their weakness, their inextinguishable cour- 
age to do the right, their inability in some cases 
to see right in more than one way. They carried 
on during their ascendancy the government of a 



46 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

colony not inferior to any other in substantial 
freedom, peace and prosperity.* 



* "And now. Dear Friends and Brethren, we recom- 
mend to you Peace and concord as the great fruits of 
charity, without which we are nothing; and that we labour 
to approve ourselves men of peace and makers of peace; 
which is our ornament, duty and ensign, as the disciples 
of Jesus. But if any be otherwise the churches of Christ 
have no such custom, nor can they therein be counte- 
nanced or suffered; but so it is to the grief of our hearts, 
and scandal of our profession, that some laying claim to 
the same (in divers provinces within the verge of this 
meeting) have been too factious and troublesome in the 
governments under which they ought peaceably to live; 
and have by their seditious words, insinuations and prac- 
tices disquieted the minds of others, to the making of 
parties and disturbances; and some under the fair colours 
of law and privileges have promoted their sinister ends; 
when indeed it was but to take vengeance against those 
whom they had taken disgust against. And this we can- 
not but declare our just abhorrence of: that any should 
sacrifice the peace of the province to private revenge; 
warn all to beware of such; and wherever they find 
them, forthwith to deal with them, and to acquit our 
holy profession of them in a Gospel way. For by God's 
help, we have now for many years approved ourselves 
peaceable subjects to them whom God by his providence 
hath set over us: first, to the King as supreme, and next, 
to those in authority under him; being subject, not for 
wrath, but conscience. But when at any time it hath 
pleased God to suffer the rulers that hath been over us to 
impose anything against our allegiance to God, Ave have 
patiently suffered under them till the Lord hath been 
pleased to open their understandings and mollify their 
hearts towards us; and this we also recommend to be con- 
tinued amongst us."— Yearly Meeting, 1701, 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 47 

CHAPTER IV. 

DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL LIBERTY. 

Such a people would have had a government 
which would adequately express their beliefs and 
habits. It could not fail to be democratic, for 
equality was deeply ingTained in their religious 
doctrines; on its penal side it could not fail to be 
reformatory, for reformation was the characteris- 
tic of all their churchly efforts in dealing with 
offenders; it could not fail to demand individual 
rights to the full, for they had ever claimed for 
themselves the largest individual freedom. It 
mattered, therefore, comparatively little what 
AVilliam Penn's personal views were. The 
people who emigrated to Pennsylvania through 
his influence would sooner or later have moulded 
the State into the form it finally assumed. That 
it was done so quickly and effectually is, how- 
ever, largely due to his substantial agreement 
and sympathy with his co-religionists. He held 
their views, and had suffered their sufferings, 
but unlike most of them he had a tolerably clear 
conception of the means to be used to achieve 
the results desired by all He had experience 



48 A Qual'er Experiment in Government. 

and leisure and education and access to authori- 
ties, and a large list of friends with whom to ad- 
vise. He was, therefore, a fair representative of 
his people, and his Frames of Government 
largely expressed their convictions and temper. 
The colonists accepted all the liberty he gave 
them, but, as it seemed to him, rather ungen- 
erously, demanded more. His paternal assump- 
tions, which were accepted in his gTacious and 
forceful presence, could not in his absence or in 
the hands of his heirs become permanent. The 
friction engendered by them was evidently a 
source of surprise and disappointment to him. 
That the peaceable and long-suffering Friends 
should quickly become staunch and well-organ- 
ized supporters of popular rights, finding leaders 
of their own not entirely in s\anpathy with him, 
was an unwelcome and unexpected discovery. 
Yet it was in reality only a development of his 
own expressed ideas, a corollary of the prin- 
ciples he had so frequently and so forcibly 
enumerated. '^ For the matters of liberty and 
privilege I propose that which is extraordinary, 
and to leave myself and successors no power of 
doing mischief; so that the will of one man may 
not hinder the good of the whole country,'' he 
wrote in 1861, and the province accepted the 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 49 

grant as fully as it was offered. Had the colo- 
nists of Pennsylvania been thrown together with- 
out previous arrangements, a government in 
harmony with the Quaker mind, free and demo- 
cratic, shorn of the proprietary idea, concentrat- 
ing the power in the popularly elected Assembly 
would have been the inevitable result. 

It is not unlikely that the reaction from the re- 
strictions of England carried the democratic 
party too far in its opposition to what little 
power the Proprietary hoped to preserve out of 
the advancing flood of popular privileges. The 
people, mostly famiers, underlings at home, now 
found themselves in a situation to secure all and 
more than all they had ever hoped for. " This 
people think privileges their due, and all that can 
be grasped to be their native right .... Some 
people's brains are as soon intoxicated with 
power as the natives are with their beloved 
liquor, and as little to be trusted with it,"* 
Logan writes in 1704. But Logan was never 
democratic in his tendencies, was violent in his 
statements, and just at this time was in the heat 
of partisan conflict. The life of Penn was 
greatly embittered by what he considered the in- 

* Penn and Logan CoiTespondence, I., page 299. 



50 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

gratitude of liis people. After being most lib- 
eral in his concessions their repeated demands for 
more seemed to him to indicate " an excess of 
vanity that is apt to creep in upon the people in 
power in America, who, having got out of the 
crowd in which they were lost here, upon every 
little eminency there think nothing taller than 
themselves but the trees/' He suggests that 
those in office should be brought occasionally to 
London " that they might lose themselves again 
amongst the crowds of so much more consider- 
able people.""^ But this has been the charge 
urged against Americans in all ages since then. 
"Whether the climate or the distance from estab- 
lished institutions has been the cause, the Penn- 
sylvanians displayed very early the qualities 
which have made America free and vigorous, as 
well as sometimes self-assertive and irreverent. 
It was a pleasing sentiment that William Penn 
and his family should live as gracious and kindly 
feudal lords, dispensing the blessings of religious 
and civil liberty upon willing and trusting free- 
men, but it was opposed to the spirit of the age 
and of the race and could not be. The great 
goodness and liberality of the Proprietor, his 

* Penn and Logan Correspondence, I., page 374. 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 51 

misfortunes from the hands of those he trusted 
most, his evident desire to have his Province 
happy and prosperous and his perfect willingness 
to make any reasonable sacrifice in order to make 
it so, cause our sympathies to go out to him in his 
differences with an ungrateful people. In one 
sense a sadder life than his we seldom know. 
His letters again and again, sometimes pathetic,* 
sometimes indignant, portray the keen disap- 
pointment of an honest, conscientious and sensi- 
tive soul. There was undoubtedly provocation. 
Demagogues then, as always, led the people 

* " Pennsylvania! what hast thou cost me! Above 
£30,000 more than I ever got by it, two hazardous and 
most fatiguing voyages, my straits and slavery here, and 
my child's soul almost."— Penn and Logan Correspondence, 
I., page 280. 

" I have cause to believe that had he (Logan) been as 
much in opposition, as he has been understood to stand 
for me, he might have met with milder treatment from his 
persecutors, and to think that any man should be the more 
exposed there on my account, and instead of finding favor, 
meet with enmity, for his being engaged in my service, is 
a melancholy consideration. In short, when I reflect 
upon all these heads of which I have so much cause to 
complain, and at the same time think of the hardships, 1 
and my suffering family have been reduced to, in no small 
measure owing to my endeavors for, and disappointments 
from that province, I cannot but mourn the unhappiness 
of my portion dealt to me from those of whom I had rea- 
son to expect much better and different things."— Proud, 
" History of Pennsylvania." 



52 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

astray. Sordid men refused grants whicla every 
consideration of fairness, to say nothing of grati- 
tude, should have caused them to make. But 
underneath it all was the demand of the age for 
liberty, a demand expressing itself oftentimes 
unwisely and ungraciously, but leading on the 
people to the inevitable goal of perfect democ- 
racy. 

Penn himself was an enthusiast for liberty. 
So far from desiring reservations of power for 
himself he spread abroad among the people the 
principles of the advanced republicanism of his 
day. In 168Y he published in Philadelphia for 
local circulation a copy of Magna Charta, with 
introduction and comments evidently intended 
to give his colonists a knowledge of their liber- 
ties and to incite them to demand them.* The 
treatise also contains " A Confirmation of the 
Charters of the Liberties of England and of the 
Forest made Anno XXY. Edward I.; the 
sentence of the Clergy against the Breakers of 



* There is only one copy of this issue known to exist. 
This is in possession of " The Friends' INIeeting for Suffer- 
ings " at 304 Arch Street, Philadelphia. A handsome edi- 
tion of 155 copies has been published (1897) by the Philo- 
biblion Club of Philadelnhia. William Penn's name does 
not appear, but David Lloyd in 1728 refers to it as Penn's 
production. 



Democracy and Civil Liberly. 53 

these Articles; the sentence or curse given by 
the Bishops against the Breakers of the Great 
Charter; a statute made Anno XXXIV. Ed- 
ward I., commonly called De Tallagio non Con- 
cedendo," an abstract of Penn's patent, and a 
copy of The Frame of Government. 

It could hardly be doubted that the man who 
made the eloquent and effective defence, with 
William Mead, of himself and the jury that ac- 
quitted him, in 1670, understood and appre- 
ciated the full meaning of civil liberty. His 
views did not change when from being a prisoner 
he became the ruler of a province. ^N'othing 
could be more eloquent than his address " To 
the Reader " of his book of 1687. 

It may reasonably be supposed that we shall find in 
this part of the world many men, both old and young, that 
are strangers in a great measure to the true understanding 
of that inestimable inheritance that every free-born sub- 
ject of England is heir unto by birthright, I mean that un- 
paralleled privilege of Liberty and Property beyond all 
the nations in the world beside; and it is to be %vished 
that all men did rightly understand their own happiness 
therein; in pursuance of which I do here present thee 
with that ancient garland, the Fundamental Laws of Eng- 
land, bedecked with many precious privileges of 
Liberty and Property, by which every man that is a sub- 
ject to the Crown of England, may understand what is his 
right and liow to preserve it from unjust and unreason- 
able men; Avhereby appears the eminent care and wis- 
dom and industry of our progenitors in providing for them- 



54 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

selves and posterity so good a fortress that is able to repel 
the lust, pride and power of the noble as well as the ig- 
norance of the ignoble; it being that excellent and dis- 
creet balance that gives every man his even proportion, 
which cannot be taken from him, nor be dispossessed of his 
life, liberty or estate, but by the trial and judgment of 
twelve of his equals, or Law of the Land, upon the pen- 
alty of the bitter curses of the whole people; so great was 
the zeal of our predecessors for the preservation of these 
fundamental liberties (contained in these charters) from 
encroachment, that they employed all their policy and 
religious obligations to secure them entire and inviolable, 
albeit the contrary hath often been endeavored, yet Provi- 
dence hitherto hath preserved them as a blessing to the 
English subjects. 

The chief end of the publication hereof is for the in- 
formation and understanding (what is their native right 
and inheritance) of such who may not have leisure from 
their plantations to read large volumes; and beside I 
know this country is not furnished with law books, and 
this being the sort from whence all our wholesome English 
laws spring, and indeed the line by which they must be 
squared, I have ventured to make it public, hoping it may 
be of use and service to many freemen planters and in- 
habitants of this country, to whom it is sent and recom- 
mended, wishing it may raise up noble resolutions in all 
the freeholders in these new colonies not to give away 
anything of Liberty and Property that at present they do 
(or of right as loyal subjects ought to) enjoy, but take up 
the good example of our ancestors, and understand that it 
is easy to part with or give away great privileges, but hard 
to be gained if once lost. And therefore all depends upon 
our kindest care and actings to preserve and lay sure 
foundations for ourselves and the posterity of our loins.— 
" Philopolitcs." 

Could William Penn have lived a century 
longer he would not have seen the exact State of 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 55 

his imagination, but he would have recognized 
the great impetus given to the cause of human 
liberty by his well meant and in the main wise 
efforts. Eeformers never get Avhat they work 
for just as they expect it. 

Pennsylvania became the most consistently 
free colony in the country, the most consistently 
prosperous, the most rapid in its growth in free- 
dom and prosperity. So nearly had the inhabi- 
tants everything they could desire that they hes- 
itated to take up the Kevolutionary cause in 
1775. Their charter, their traditions, their 
thoughts were all free, and they were slow to 
understand the fervor of Xew England and Vir- 
ginia.* 

* The glowing words of Andrew Hamilton, when giving 
up his place as Speaker of the Assembly in 1739, were im- 
doubtedly true: 

" It is not to the fertihty of our soil or the commodious- 
ness of our rivers that we ought chiefly to attribute the 
great progress this province has made within so small a 
compass of years in improvements, wealth, trade, and 
navigation, and the extraordinary increase of people who 
have been drawn from every countrj- in Europe; it is all 
due to the excellency of our Constitution. Our foreign 
trade and shipping are free from all imposts except those 
small duties payable to his Majesty by the statute laws of 
Great Britain. The taxes are inconsiderable, for the sole 
power of raising and disposing of public money is lodged 
in the Assembly . . . By many years' experience we find 
that an equality among religious societies, without distin- 



56 A Quaker Experimeiit in Government. 

By the charter of Charles II. William Penn 
was made absolute proprietor of Pennsylvania 
and was authorized, with the assent of the free- 
men or their representatives, to make all laws 
not inconsistent with those of England, and to 
appoint judges and other officers. In cases of 
emergency he might be absolute lawmaker with- 
out calling together the legislative body. There 
was to be an appeal allowed to England at the 
expiration of five years after the passage of any 
law, and the crown thus reserved the powder of 
veto on all Pennsylvania enactments. 

Armed with these powers and limitations he 
went to work at constitution-making. The vari- 
ous trials may be seen among the " Penn MSS." 
in the library of the Historical Society of Penn- 
sylvania. Anyone having the time and patience 
to follow^ out the efforts of the author in the mass 
of old writings, with their erasures and inter- 
linear and marginal corrections, might probably 
trace the steps through which the final Frame of 



giiishing one sect M-itls greater privileges than another, is 
the most effective method to discourage hypociisy, pro- 
mote the practise of moral virtues, and prevent the plagues 
and mischiefs vi'hich always attend religious squabbling. 
This is our Constitution, and this Constitution was framed 
by the wisdom of Mr. Penn." 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 57 

Government was perfected. Evidently more 
than one hand and brain wrought for the estab- 
lishment of the new State. The papers have 
neither date nor name, and it is difficult to tell 
whether they are products of different original 
drafts, or the same draft modified by different 
advisers. It is probable that Algernon Sidney 
aided Penn in the work. In proof of this w^e 
have the fact that Penn interested himself vigor- 
ously in furthering Sidney's election to Parlia- 
ment, and had a high estimate of his character 
and political views. He says, in a letter to him, 
after referring to " the discourse we had to- 
gether at my house about me drawing constitu- 
tions," ..." I took my pen and immediately 
altered the terms so as they corresponded with 
thy objection and sense. Upon which thou didst 
draw a draft, as to the Frame of Government, 
gave it to me to read, and we discourst with 
considerable argument." Benjamin Furly, a 
Friend of considerable influence in Holland, 
is known to have criticised the final " Frame," 
and it would have been well had his cor- 
rections been adopted in advance, as the 
logic of events required most of them to 
be finally. Others of Penn'? co-religionists, 
and some intending immigrants, were also 



58 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

consulted, and tlie result is the jumble now 
to be seen in the records of the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania. It interests us only for our 
present purpose to know that William Penn ad- 
hered, through all the changes of detail, to the 
fundamental purpose expressed by him in 1676 
in relation to West Jersey affairs: "We lay a 
foundation for after ages to understand their 
liberty as men and Christians, that they may not 
be brought in bondage but by their own consent; 
for we put the power in the people." 

Out of this mass of suggestions arose Penn's 
" Fundamental Constitutions " — being twenty- 
four clauses embracing his general ideas of gov- 
ernment, — one constitution, as we would express 
it. This was not adopted exactly as promul- 
gated. Other influences were afterwards 
brought to bear, and changes were made which 
did not improve the plan. The original is among 
the Penn MSS. and has only recently been pub- 
lished.* It is interesting as probably being the 
nearest approximation possible to Penn's ideas of 
government. What he wanted was " the frame of 
government that shall best preserve Magistracy 
in reverence with the people and best keep it 
from being hurtful to them.'' He cast aside 

•"Pennsylvania Magazine/' October, 1896. 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 59 

everything which would not conduce to the 
general peace and prosperity. " For it were a 
most condemnable superstition to perpetuate 
anything for being ancient or domestick that 
were not otherwise useful." In the forefront of 
his " Constitutions " he places the right of every 
one to worship according to his conscience and 
pledges himself to secure it. He further de- 
clares it a fundamental that an Assembly having 
the privileges of an English House of Commons 
be elected yearly, which shall meet whether 
called by the governor or not. For the purposes 
of election there shall be small districts, each one 
sending two men to the Assembly. These shall 
bring w^itli them the written instructions of their 
electors, and if they are violated the Assembly- 
man shall be ineligible " unless the people, sen- 
sible of his repentance, shall forgive and choose 
him." They shall be required, moreover, to se- 
cure the approbation of their electors to each 
law or appropriation during the session of the 
Assembly, " that they may always remem- 
ber they are but deputies." The Assembly 
might contain three hundred and eighty-four 
members, and had the power to select forty-eight 
Councilmen out of their own number as a per- 
manent board and upper house of legislature, 



60 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

with co-ordinate powers. During the sessions of 
the Assembly this Council shall consult with the 
larger body in order to send a law to the Gover- 
nor. The Council has also executive duties. 
The Governor can veto laws within fourteen 
days of their presentation. Primogeniture shall 
be abolished except that in deference to the Jew- 
ish law the oldest son may receive double the 
share of each of the others. Imprisonment for 
debt for small sums shall be abolished, and for 
large ones wdien the debtor is not worth ten 
pounds. Capital punishment for felony shall be 
abolished. Affirmations shall be substituted for 
oaths. The law of Habeas Corpus shall be ob- 
served. There shall be no tavern or ale houses, 
and horse racing, bull and bear baiting and 
games of cards and dice shall be prohibited. All 
children — girls and boys — shall be taught use- 
ful trades. For each local office two names shall 
be chosen by the electors, and the Governor shall 
appoint one of the two. If he fail to do so, the 
one first named shall hold the office. 

This is a remarkable Constitution for the year 
1681. It anticipates by two centuries in some 
respects the best ideas of the most advanced re- 
publics. There could not well be anything more 
democratic than the Assembly. The initiative 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 61 

and the referendum are both here. The pro- 
hibitionist will find there his plan for suppress- 
ing saloons. Nothing of vital consequence now 
in our American Constitution relating to indi- 
vidual liberty and the rights of popular assem- 
blies is denied except the privilege of passing 
laws over the Governor's veto. 

It would have saved some friction had these 
" Constitutions '' stood. But Penn must have a 
colony before he could legislate for it, and we 
may well imagine that it was an uppermost sub- 
ject with him to induce the right sort of men to 
emigrate in large numbers. As he truly said, 
" Let men be good and the government cannot 
be bad. If it be ill they will cure it. But if 
men be bad, let the govcniment be ever so good, 
they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their 
turn." * It is therefore probable that in order 
to conciliate large land purchasers he gave the 
Council, his upper house, in his final draft the 
sole power to originate laws — the Assembly 
being authorized only to pass on such laws as were 
presented to it. It was supposed that the largest 
property holders would constitute the Council, 
and he exalted it at the expense, not only of the 

* Preface to the Frame of Government. 



62 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

Assembly, but of the Governor and Proprietor 
as well, for he gave up the right of veto and 
only retained three votes in a council of seventy- 
two members. 

l!^either of these provisions could become per- 
manent. The people immediately demanded 
full legislative rights for the Assembly, and after 
1693 practically excluded the Council from any 
law-making powers. In 1701 it became an ad- 
visory board for the Governor, appointed by the 
Proprietor. Both people and Proprietor saw 
that the latter official or his representative would 
be powerless without the veto, and restored 
it in 169C. But the willingness of William 
Penn to give up power and privilege does credit 
to his generosity, if not always to his judgment. 

The Assembly of the first year was to consist 
of all the freemen of the province, afterwards of 
two hundred members. But here again the de- 
sire for a pure democracy had outgrown the 
bounds of reason. The freemen would not come 
together. They were too busy. Nor could the 
sparse population support two hundred Assem- 
blymen, pinally thirty-six became the maxi- 
mum number, and near this it remained through 
the Colonial period. 

The "Frame of Government " and the " Laws 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 63 

agreed upon in England '^ were the final prod- 
ucts of all Penn's best thinking and confer- 
ences, and were brought with him to the Colony 
in 1682. Though changed in form many times 
they shaped all future Constitutions of Pennsyl- 
vania, of other States and of the Federal Union.* 
This Frame was modified in 1683 to correct 
some glaring inconveniences, again in 1696 in 
the direction of popular freedom, and in 1701 it 
assumed the form wdiich it maintained during 
the Colonial period. It was the Constitution 
of Pennsylvania until 1776. There seems good 
reason to believe that Penn preferred the earlier 
drafts, but that the concentration of the power in 
the hands of the Assembly was demanded by the 
democratic aspirations of the people. The Pro- 
prietor had said to them in 1700 with the great- 
est frankness, " Friends, if in the Constitution by 
charter there be anything that jars, alter it. If 
you want a law for this or that, prepare it. . . . 
Study peace and be at unity. ... I desire to see 
mine not otherwise than in the public's pros- 
perity.'' The demand of the people for liberty 
was met by a gracious surrender on the part of 



* For an interesting comparison between Locke's Con* 
stitutiou and Penn's see Bancroft's History. 



64 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

the Proprietor. Himself greatly in advance of 
the times, he so far honored the principle of 
government by the people, as repeatedly to yield 
his own judgment and desires; so that while 
they were contending with him and his agents 
for additional privileges he was himself shielding 
them to his own pecuniary disadvantage from 
the attacks of enemies in England who were 
seeking to deprive them of privileges already 
granted. 

The charter of 1701 which embodied the final 
triumph of radical democratic principles con- 
tained only nine articles. The first grants 
liberty of conscience to all who " Confess and 
acknowledge Almighty God," and grants to all 
who profess to believe in Jesus Christ the right 
to hold executive and legislative ofiices, by giv- 
ing a promise of allegiance and fidelity. 

The second requires an Assembly to be chosen 
yearly by the freemen to consist of four persons 
or more from each county. This Assembly has 
full powers to choose its officers, to judge of the 
qualifications of its own members, to adjourn 
itself, to prepare bills and make laws, impeach 
criminals and redress grievances, " with all other 
powers and privileges of an assembly according 
to the rights of free-born subjects of England." 



Democracy and Civil Liberfy. 65 

The third requires the freemen to elect two or 
three people for each position of sheriff or coroner 
or other court officers, and the Governor to 
choose among them. Or if the Governor fails 
to select, the first named shall serv^e. 

The fourth declares that all laws shall be is- 
sued in the form, " By the Governor, with the 
consent and approbation of the freemen in Gen- 
eral Assembly met." 

The fifth allows all criminals to have the same 
privileges of witnesses and counsel as their pros- 
ecutors. 

The sixth requires that all cases concerning 
property shall be decided by courts of justice and 
not by Governor and Council. 

The seventh prevents any one receiving a 
tavern license who is not recommended by the 
justices, and allows the justices to suppress a dis- 
orderly public house. 

The eighth prevents the forfeiture of the es- 
tates of suicides or intestates; prohibits any law 
contrary to this Charter without the consent of 
the Governor and six-sevenths of the Assembly, 
and pledges the Proprietor to observe inviolably 
the first article concerning liberty of conscience. 

Lastly the Proprietor binds himself and heirs 



66 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

not to destroy the liberties of the Charter, and 
declares such actions if attempted to be of no 
force or effect. 

Nothing was said in the Charter about a veto 
of laws by the Governor except such as is implied 
in the fourth article. This seems, however, 
never to have been questioned. When the Pro- 
prietor was in the Province his assent was neces- 
sary to all laws. When absent the Deputy Gov- 
ernor was to assent, but he was governed by 
general proprietary instructions. While ex- 
cluded from law-making, the Council could ex- 
ercise a salutary restraint upon both the Assem- 
bly and the Governor. It was composed of eight 
or twelve wise and solid men, and being ap- 
pointed by the Proprietors largely to safeguard 
their interests, was out of direct reach of pop- 
ular clamor. The Deputy Governors were usu- 
ally instructed to perform no act without its con- 
sent. This gave it a valuable conservative place 
in government. 

" Thus did Penn perfect his government. An 
executive dependent for its support on the peo- 
ple; all subordinate elective officers elected by 
the people; the judiciary dependent for its ex- 
istence on the people; all legislation originating 
exclusively with the people; no forts, no armed 



. Democracy and Civil Liberty. 67 

force, no militia; no established church; no 
difference of rank; and a harbor open for the 
reception of all mankind of every nation, of 
children of every language and every creed; — 
could it be that the invisible power of reason 
would be able to order and restrain, to punish 
crime and to protect property? " ^ 

Before entering upon the development of the 
principles of democracy and civil liberty in the 
Province, it will be interesting to know the ex- 
tent to which the Quakers controlled the govern- 
ment. While William Penn was in his usual 
health his influence was of course very great. 
His proprietorship in its relation to the govern- 
ment, to his quit-rents due from lands sold, to 
his private ownership of vast acres of unoccupied 
land, as well as his personal character, purity 
and simplicity of life, the value of his religious 
ministry, and his great abilities, gave him a com- 
manding influence. He was in the country in 
active control in 1682-4, and again in 1699- 
1701. In 1712 he was seized with a stroke of 
apoplexy, and was unable to do business until 
1718, when he died. During this time his 
affairs were managed with great ability by his 

* Bancroft's '' History of the United States." 



68 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

wife, who was, later, his executrix. After her 
death his sons by his second wife inherited his 
proprietary interests. They gave up their rights 
in the Society of Friends, and in general did not 
sympathize with it. During the latter part 
of the time covered by this narrative, they were 
in almost constant opposition to the Quaker ele- 
ments of the Pennsylvania population. This 
was more due to the fact of diverse interests, 
arising from their private ownership of land, 
than to any denominational cause. The Quaker 
Assembly was the exponent of the democratic 
feeling of the country, and was in frequent col- 
lision with proprietary instructions and proprie- 
tary claims. This oppostion may have been 
strengthened by a feeling of the sons' desertion 
of a cause with which the father was so promi- 
nently identified, but sooner or later feudal in- 
terests and popular interests would inevitably 
clash. 

There Avas only one Deputy Governor who 
was a Quaker. AVhen Penn returned to England 
in 1684 the executive responsibility was left 
T\'ith a council of five, of which Thomas Lloyd 
was President. This Presidency, involving the 
practical headship of the Province, was retained 
till 1688, when Captain John Blackwell was ap- 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 69 

pointed Lieutenant Governor. This arrange- 
ment only lasted about a year, and Thomas 
Lloyd again came into power, as President of the 
Council, and in 1691 as Deputy Governor. In 
1693 Colonel Fletcher was appointed Governor 
by William III., who had taken the govern- 
ment from Penn, and in 1694 William Mark- 
ham received the same position from the Proprie- 
tor, who had regained his Province. Thomas 
Lloyd was a minister in the Society of Friends, 
much loved and trusted by all, though at least 
one of his acts led to Penn's very severe reproba- 
tion.* He was a younger son in a Welsh family 
of good standing, an Oxford graduate, and a 
man of retiring disposition, who accepted office 
with reluctance as a duty and gave it up with 
glad relief. Finding a number of disorderly 
characters frequenting the city he would go out 
at nights and give them religious advice. The 
combination of Deputy Governor and Quaker 
preacher was too much for the boisterous spirits, 



* " I too mournfully remember how noble a law I had of 
exports and imports. But Thomas Lloyd, very unhappily for 
me, my family and himself, complimented some few selfish 
spirits with the repeal thereof." — Penn to Logan. Penn 
and Logan Correspondence, II., page 70. 



70 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

and Philadelphia became under his control the 
most decorous of cities. He died in 1694, leav- 
ing a place which could not be filled by any 
member of the Society of Friends.* There may, 
however, have been other reasons why Penn 
preferred Governors who were not Friends. Or- 
ders of a character difficult for a Quaker to ex- 
ecute might at any time come from England. f 
William Penn had received power in his Charter 
from Charles II. to train soldiers and to make 
war. If the King should require w^arlike meas- 
ures at the hands of the Governor it was con- 
venient to have a Deputy without any scruples 



* Edward Shippen, a Quaker, performed as President of 
the Council, in 1702-3, the duties of Deputy Governor in 
an interval between appointments, and James Logan in a 
similar way in 1736-7. 

t The Deputy Governors after Penn's second visit were: 

Andrew Hamilton 1701 

John Evans 1703 

Charles Gookin 1709 

William Keith 1717 

Patrick Gordon 1726 

George Thomas 1738 

James Hamilton 1748 

Robert Hunter Morris 1754 

William Denny 1756 

James Hamilton 1759 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 71 

of conscience to stand in the way of organizing 
militia and erecting fortifications.* 

During the life time of William Penn the 
Council was Quaker by a considerable majority. 
His widow directed the Deputy to appoint at 
least half the Councillors from the Society. f 
After her death the Council naturally repre- 
sented the changed feeling of the heirs, so that 
the whole e.xecutive branch was in certain re- 
spects disavowed by Friends. James Logan or his 
son William, both Friends, retained a place there 
through nearly all the proprietary regime. In 
early time many members were ministers. 

Nothing more clearly shows the entire break- 
down of the line between ministers and laity 
than the way they exercised indiscriminately all 
public offices. Whether Quakers or not, the 



* As a illustration: Under date of 29th of Fifth month, 
1702, Logan writes to Penn: " I have not much to advise 
of more than by the last packet arrived, with orders di- 
rected to thee, or the commander-in-chief of this to pro- 
claim a war, which was accordingly done on the Cth day 
last, the 24th inst." 

t " By order nine of twelve of my Council are Quakers, 
the Magistrates in the same proportion, and the Assembly 
twenty-three Quakers to three churchmen/' — Governor 
Gookin to Secretary, March 16th, 1716-7. " Papers I'elat- 
ing to the American Church, Pennsylvania," page 109. 



72 A Quahei' Experiment in Government. 

Council was composed of men of attainments 
and character, and the place was one of honor 
and usefulness, even after all law-making powers 
were taken from it. 

The Quakers, however, revelled in complete 
possession of the Assembly from 1682 to 1756. 
The first meeting at Chester in the former 
year was to have consisted of all the freemen 
of the Province. But the counties sent up 
only twelve men each, thirty-six from Penn- 
sylvania and thirty-six from Delaware, asking 
Penn to accept this as a competent legisla- 
ture. The Quaker immigration had not set 
in very largely, and the Swedes and Dutch 
already in the country, particularly in the 
lower counties, had a majority of one in the 
Assembly. The lines seem to have been drawn 
on Quaker membership, and in choosing a 
speaker the absence of two of the non-Quaker 
members alone enabled Friends to organize it.* 



* Letter of William Penn to Jasper Yeates, " Pennsyl- 
vania Magazine," Vol. VI., page 469. This letter contains 
many interesting features concerning Penn's attitude 
towards the government of his colony. Yeates had evi- 
dently reproached Penn for securing too much for his own 
family. Penn calls attention in reply to the fact that he had 
only three votes in joint legislature of 272 members, and 
after telling how near the Quakers were to losing control as 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 73 

After this there seems to have been no question 
of ascendency. Friends were elected not infre- 
quently against their own protests. After the 
separation of the three lower counties, the As- 
sembly came still more into their hands. In 1755 
a militia law is thus prefaced : " Whereas this 
Province Avas settled by (and a majority of the 
Assembly have ever since been of) the people 
called Quakers, etc." Franklin speaks of them 
in 1747 as " That wealthy and powerful body of 
people who have ever since the war governed our 
elections and filled almost every seat in our As- 
sembly." * T^i^y were partly aided in this by a 
somewhat inequitable division of assemblymen 
which gave a double representation to the three 
Quaker counties — Philadelphia, Chester and 
Bucks. It arose in this way. After 1701 it had 
been decided to constitute the Assembly of four 
members from each county, and if ever the lower 

stated above, says that many Friends wanted him to take 
back part of the power he had granted them. But at this 
date he does not indicate any intention to do it. The 
pressure probably became stronger later, for in 1683 he 
accepted the veto power. 

* A Church of England clergyman writes : " We can have 
no expectation of being a parish while seven-eighths of our 
Assembly are Quakers."—" Papers Relating to the Church 
of Pennsylvania," page 107. 



74 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

counties separated their quota should be added to 
the three Pennsylvania counties then in exist- 
ence. When new counties were added, they came 
in on the basis of the original numbers. This 
was excused by the ideas of property representa- 
tion then prevalent, and on this basis was not un- 
reasonable. It gave, however, double power to 
the counties which would naturally choose Quak- 
er representatives. In the country districts of 
these counties there was a Quaker majority prob- 
ably up to 1740 or 1750. In Philadelphia city 
there was never a Quaker majority except possi- 
bly for a very few years after 1682. In 1702 it 
has been estimated that the population of the city 
was equal to that of the country, and that one- 
third of the former and two-thirds of the latter 
were Quakers."^ It was about this date, there- 
fore, that they became a minority, and the 
minority grew smaller by immigration of others 
with each succeeding year. The estimates of 
their number in 1756 vary from one-sixth to 
one-fourth of the total population. The exact 
numbers will never be known, as no church cen- 
suses were ever taken. 



* James Logan. Penn-Logan Correspondence, I., page 
102. 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 75 

Though thus in the minority^ in 1740 there 
were only three non-Quaker members of the As- 
sembly,^" and in 1755, before they had them- 
selves taken any measures to give up their seats, 
twenty-eight of the thirty-six members were 
Friends. f The responsibility for the actions of 
the Assembly therefore during these years, so 
far as their religious beliefs affected their duties 
as legislators, properly belongs to them. 

With the exception of the unequal repre- 
sentation, disproportionate as to numbers, among 
the counties, there is nothing to indicate any im- 
proper efforts to retain power in the hands of 
Friends. Their root principle of denominational 
equality, never varied from and probably never 
seriously impeached, would prevent this.i They 

* " Pennsylvania Magazine," X,, page 291. 

t Pemberton Papers. 

t Shepherd, in his " History of Proprietary Government 
in Pennsylvania," makes a natural error vs^hen he says 
(foot-note, page 518) : " The Quakers even went so far as 
to make up their party ticket at their yearly religious 
meetings." Any one familiar with the methods and spirit 
of a Yearly Meeting would know the impossibility of such 
an action. The authority for Dr. Shepherd's statement is 
the following from The Shippen Papers. Edward Shippen 
writes under date September 19th, 1756: " No ticket is yet 



76 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

did feel a deep responsibility for the conduct of 
a state based largely on their principles and in 
which they had been the leading denomination 
from the start. The principles were on trial. 
It was an experiment, a " holy '' one perhaps, 
but more than this was not claimed. It would 
be cowardly to yield their places to the clamor of 
enemies at home and in England, so long as in 
honest elections and by honorable methods they 
were legitimately chosen to places of poAver. 
There were among them ambitious and design- 
ing men who made the most of their opportuni- 
ties to advance their personal influence. But if 
there are any adequate proofs of public immoral- 
ity or personal aggrandizement of a serious char- 
acter, or unrighteous expedients to perpetuate 
church control or to establish a religion bv state 
aid, or as a church to retain political ascendency, 
they have escaped a tolerably careful scrutiny of 
public and meeting records. Until 1750 they 

settled for this county (Philadelphia), nor can any be 
until the result of the Yearly Meeting at Burlington is 
known." At first sight this seems to confirm the state- 
ment. The facts are, as will be seen in a succeeding chap- 
ter, that both London and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings 
were about to make strenuous efforts to prevent any Friend 
taking a seat in the Assembly, and several possible candi- 
dates refused to offer themselves till the action of the 
Yearly Meeting should be knovv^n. 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 77 

probably voted for their own meiiibcrs, but the 
election turned very largely on the German vote, 
which from similarity of religious and political 
views naturally Avent to them, while the Scotch- 
Irish Presbyterians of the frontiers and the Epis- 
copalians of the city of Philadelphia supported 
the Proprietary party of the later days. The 
Quakers were never outvoted so long as they con- 
sented to be candidates. 

How the parties in those days selected their 
candidates, what substitute they had for the 
modern caucus, and what machinery they used 
to make their leadership effective, may not be 
known. The Quakers seem to have become effi- 
cient politicians. They elected their best men, 
and kept them continually in office. 

Resuming now quite briefly the political his- 
tory of the country so far as the preservation 
of civil rights is concerned, we find, as we might 
expect from the nature of the country whence 
the immigrants had come, and the age in which 
they lived, that they had the instincts for free- 
dom, the suspicion of any power but popular 
power, sufficiently strong and sufficiently close 
to the surface. For the first twenty years the 
politics of the country is full of bickerings and 
difficulties over not verv larsje matters. When 



78 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

Thomas Lloyd was in power after Penii's first 
absence, tliere was some degree of barmony 
betw^een tbe executive and the legislature. But 
Blackwell and Fletcher and Markham each was 
at the helm at different times, and each was en- 
gaged in a struggle with the popular Assembly 
which ended ingloriously for him. Blackwell, 
who came in in 1688, was an old soldier, son-in- 
law to Cromwell's General Lambert, with no 
tact, but excellent intentions. He meant to rule 
the country; he was under the impression that 
Penn gave him some sort of power, and he un- 
dertook in his own wisdom to revise the Council 
then elected by the people. But Thomas Lloyd, 
Quaker preacher though he was, proved a most 
doughty and persistent opponent and effective 
champion of popular rights, and would not be 
put out. Samuel Richardson, in words which 
remind one immediately of the spirit of English 
Puritanism of the earlier times, refused to own 
the Governor, and when asked to withraw while 
his case was being considered replied, '' I will not 
withdraw. I was not brought hither by thee, 
and I will not go out by thy order. I was sent 
by the people, and thou hast no power to put 
me out." ^ There was nothing for Blackwell to 

* Col. Rec, Vol. I., p. 20. 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 79 

do but to give up the fight and to ask for a recall. 
When it came he no doubt sincerely told the 
Council, " 'Tis a good day; I have given and I 
do unfeignedly give God thanks for it (which 
are not in vain words), for to say no worse I wa? 
very unequally yoked." Thus ended the first 
attempt to govern a body of Quakers by a soldier. 
After this Thomas Lloyd came in again as 
President of the Council and then Deputy Gov- 
ernor, and harmony reigned for a little time. 
But the lower counties (the present State of Del- 
aware), connected with the Province but not 
largely settled by Quakers, did not work harmo- 
niously with the others. George Keith got up a 
religious schism which developed into a political 
opposition to the dominant powers. There was a 
growing party of Churchmen, which afterwards, 
under the leadership of Colonel Quarry, an offi- 
cer appointed by the Crown to attend to admi- 
ralty cases and hence independent of the provin- 
cial government, was entirely out of harmony 
with Quaker notions on war and oaths, and was 
striving to discredit the government in England 
so as to secure the forfeiture of the Charter and 
the establishment of a Crown colony. The As- 
sembly was rent internally by dissensions in ef- 
forts to punish members for disrespect and to 



80 ^4 Quaker Experiment in Government. 

gain power from the Governor and Council, and 
seemed to justify Logan's complaint that they 
were intoxicated with the liberty to which they 
were unused. To crown all William Penn was 
thrown into prison on the charge of Jacobinism, 
his government taken from him, and Governor 
Fletcher of New York appointed to manage the 
disordered but not turbulent Province. 

Thomas Lloyd and many other Priends re- 
fused positions under him, acting on Penn's ad- 
vice " to insist on their patent with wisdom and 
moderation." The old laws were, however, de- 
clared invalid. " These laws and that model of 
government is dissolved and at an end. . . . 
The King's power and Mr. Penn's must not come 
in the scales together." This dispute was long in 
settling. The Assembly adhered tenaciously to 
their old privileges, and the nineteen months of 
Fletcher's rule saw very little done, but nothing 
lost to the cause of liberty. 

Upon the restoration of Penn to liberty and 
power in 1694, he appointed Markham as his 
Deputy, and this arrangement lasted until his 
return to the colony in 1699. Markham held to 
what he could, but was not able to resist the 
growing desires of the Assemblymen under the 
able leadership of David Lloyd. They secured 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 81 

the charter of 1696, giving them the power of 
originating, as Avell as vetoing bills, thus re- 
ducing the Council to a co-ordinate rather than 
a superior body, a reduction still further con- 
tinued in 1701, when it was shorn of all part in 
law-making. The need of money by the Gov- 
ernor was a perfect boon to the Assembly, which, 
English-like, coupled its grant with conditions 
requiring unwelcome concessions from the pro- 
prietary deputy. 

An unfortunate ecclesiastical schism was not 
without its political effects. George Keith had 
been a doughty defender of Quakerism. He was 
perhaps the best scholar of his Society, had been 
associated with Barclay in the preparation of the 
Apology, and with Tox and Penn in their trav- 
els in Holland and Germany. He had proven 
the sincerity of his convictions by his sufferings, 
and when, in 1689, he came to Philadelphia as 
the first Headmaster of the School which is now 
the William Penn Charter School, it was with 
the highest reputation for Quaker orthodoxy, as 
well as linguistic, scientific and philosophical at- 
tainments. A change came over his views very 
soon after this. It is unnecessary to accept any 
of the reasons given by Quaker historians for 
this change; all cannot be correct. The times 



82 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

were strenuous, and strong language was used on 
both sides. Political controversy raged fiercely, 
and some of the tenets advocated were crude and 
trifling. Keith's charges against his former 
brethren were the exaltation of the Inward Light 
at the expense of the historic Christ and the 
Bible, too great use of outward resistance by 
magistrates, and the practice of capital punish- 
ment. He had many sympathizers, but the 
Yearly Meeting decided against him, and a sepa- 
rate meeting was the result. The Foxian and the 
Keithian Quakers became convenient terms of 
distinction in the writings of the day, and op- 
posed each other in church and state. 

Keith appealed to England with similar re- 
sults. His learning and his preaching made him 
friends, but the decision, carefully made, was 
adverse to his claims. After a vain attempt to 
divide Friends, he joined the Episcopal Church, 
and spent the rest of his life in refuting the doc- 
trines he had done so much to establish. He 
never denied his inconsistency. He paid a sec- 
ond visit to America, as the first missionary of 
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 
and between 1700 and 1704 traveled from Mas- 
sachusetts to Carolina, setting up churches. He 
claims to have induced about five hundred peo- 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 83 

pie in Pennsylvania, mostly Friends, to join the 
Episcopal Church, and large numbers of Pres- 
byterians in other colonies. His " Christian 
Quakers " had disappeared as an organized body 
by 1700, some returning to the fold, more join- 
ing the Baptists and Episcopalians. 

Politically, they associated themselves some- 
times with David Lloyd and the democrats, 
sometimes with Quarry and the Churchmen; 
and by the rancor they received and returned, 
added greatly to the disunion of the time. 

Notwithstanding these continuous dissensions 
among the rulers, petty and great, the coimtry 
as a whole was peaceful and prosperous. The 
farmers tilled and cleared their lands, and built 
up their homes undisturbed; they went to their 
semi-weekly meetings, and managed their church 
affairs generally in a sweet spirit of brotherly 
love. Merchants and traders carried on increas- 
ing business, and laid the foundations of con- 
siderable fortunes. Immigrants flocked in at a 
great rate, and found homes and occupations in 
pleasing contrast to their state in Europe. 
AVhen Penn landed, in 1699, he found a govern- 
ment somewhat in confusion, from an experi- 
ment of tyros not altogether " holy,'' but a peo- 
ple in the main contented and satisfied, and 



84 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

containing all the elements of liberty and pros- 
perity. 

Some of the Philadelphia merchants were 
making much money by trade. Samuel Car- 
penter, prominent in the Council and in meet- 
ing, had extensive interests in lands, mills and 
commerce, and was, about 1700, the wealthiest 
man in the province. Isaac Norris and Edward 
Shippen — the latter of whom was appointed by 
Penn as the first Mayor of the city — were also 
men of large enterprise and resources. Phila- 
delphia had drawn to herself, very early in her 
history, a large number of energetic and wealthy 
merchants, and her commerce exceeded that of 
New York. Her farmers, too, were prosperous 
and happy. 

Penn's presence composed, at least super- 
ficially, most of the differences. Xo one ques- 
tioned his authority. He was displeased with the 
too great tendencies to license, as he deemed 
them, but wisely accepted the inevitable, and 
granted such changes in fundamental law as 
were desired. His two years — all too short a 
time for the work to be done — were full of con- 
ferences with the Council and Assembly, of 
visits to and from Indian chiefs, of religious 
services in the numerous meeting houses which 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 85 

were now scattered over the three upper coun- 
ties. Matters were left in quietness, though for 
a few years an unfortunate choice of a Deputy 
Governor delayed the better days. 

Three political parties sprang into existence 
on Penn's departure. There was first the party 
devoted to proprietary interests and sympathies, 
embracing the more wealthy and highly edu- 
cated Quakers, principally of Philadelphia, of 
which in a little time James Logan came to be 
recognized as the leader. Secondly, there was 
the popular party, led by David Lloyd, com- 
posed mainly of country Friends, and reinforced 
in time by sympathetic Germans and other 
liberty-loving people; and thirdly, there was an 
opposition non-Quaker party, not strong in 
Council or Assembly, whose ultimate object was 
to make a crown colony and an established 
church. 

James Logan and David Lloyd were such 
prominent men in early Pennsylvania, that they 
deserve more than a passing notice. 

James Logan was born in Ireland in 1674 of 
Scotch parents, who were Friends. When Wil- 
liam Penn was coming to Pennsylvania, in 1699, 
he brought Logan with him as secretary and 
agent. He held successively the posts of Provin- 



86 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

cial Secretary, Commissioner of Property, Chief 
Justice, and, as President of the Council, was for 
about two years the Governor of the Province. 
He was an excellent scholar, to his friends an 
agreeable gentleman, thoroughly faithful to the 
Proprietor, who in turn placed implicit confi- 
dence in his judgment of other men, of great in- 
fluence in the Council, of which he was almost 
continuously a member, but not always courte- 
ous and condescending to men of smaller abilities 
and fewer advantages.* 

He gave very censorious verdicts of his oppo- 
nents, calling them " rogues," " composition of 
vinegar and wormwood," " lurking snake," etc. 
These were evidently written in the heat of 
partisan controversy, and unfortunately influ- 
enced Penn's mind against some who ought to 
have been his warmest friends and supporters. 
^o more faithful agent for the proprietor and 
his widow could have been found, though one 
could conceive a more judicious one. 

In later years he retired to his place at Sten- 
ton, and largely gave himself over to literary 
work. He wrote several books in Latin, and 
translated " De Senectute," which was printed 

* Proud, '• History of Pennsylvania," Vol. I., page 478. 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 87 

by Benjamin Franklin in 1744. He gave to the 
people a valuable collection of books, now incor- 
porated in the Philadelphia Library. 

He was not a very influential member of the 
Society of Friends in religious matters, partly 
on account of his views on defensive war; but 
his character and attainments were greatly re- 
spected. 

David Lloyd was a Welshman. He arrived 
in the colony in 1686, commissioned by Penn as 
Attorney General. He was an excellent lawyer, 
exemplary in all the relations of private life, of 
great force of character and commanding in- 
fluence. Were it not for the dark colors in 
which he is painted by Logan, Norris, Proud, 
and other authorities, we should regard him as a 
noble fighter for popular rights. He seems, 
however, to have been of a contentious spirit, 
and opposed Penn by methods and in words 
which neither the circumstances could justify, 
nor good political morality commend. He had 
probably honesty of purpose in his aims, and in 
the main a good cause. He was intense, dog- 
matic, unbending, perhaps politically unscrupu- 
lous in his early life; but later he became softer 
and more gracious. He never failed to be the 
trusted leader to his party so long as he was in 



88 A Quaker Experime?it in Goverfiment. 

the Assembly. The cause to which he gave his 
great energies and political abilities was the 
cause of the future, and the net result of his 
labors was to sustain in the colony strong at- 
tachment to the principles we now consider to 
be fundamentally American. He was a Quaker 
in good standing, at first living in Philadelphia; 
after 1710 in Chester. 

It is interesting to note that Logan and Lloyd 
drew together in later years, working for the 
good of the State, and that Lloyd joined in an 
affectionate memorial to Penn after his death. 

Penn left his Province in 1701, with Andrew 
Hamilton as Deputy Governor, and the play of 
political forces immediately began. The Church 
party, imder Colonel Quarry, small but active, 
would ally itself for the time with David Lloyd, 
who, however, was far from sympathizing with 
it. The main strength, however, lay in Eng- 
lish sympathy.* The malcontents were also 
with Lloyd. " It is the very leaven of George 
Keith " (now mostly Episcopalians), " left among 



* The feeling between the Churchmen and the Quakers 
was quite severe. 

" I hope j^our grace being at the helm will be mindful of 
us at the stern^ Avhen Providence shall think to bless us 
with a qualified government under his royal majesty; then 



Democracy and Civil Lilerty. 89 

the people at Lis separation, and now fermenting 
up again/' " writes Logan in 170G. Isaac i^orris 
also says in 1709: ''Most of the sticklers in the 
Assembly are either Keithians or those who stand 
fast and loose with Friends." f 

Governor Hamilton, unfortunately for the 
Province, died after about a year of administra- 
tion, and Penn sent over John Evans, a Welsh- 
Christianity will flourish in this Province, Quakerism will 
be rooted out, and the church will be more than con- 
querer," July 12th, 1700. " Papers Relating to the Church 
in Pennsylvania/' page 16. 

The Episcopalians evidently desired the establisliment of 
a state church, and this deepened the Quaker opposition, 
political and otherwise. This feeling very much softened 
towards Revolutionary times, and we find James Pember- 
ton lamenting the growth of the Presbyterians at the ex- 
pense of the Episcopalians. The Scotch-Irish Presby- 
terians, in many respects the Quaker antipodes, were their 
great political opponents of the pre-Revolutionary days. 
This culminated in the " Paxton boys " invasion of 1763-4. 

Even in early days all the losses of Quakerism went to 
the Church of England. George Ross writes, under date 
of August 28, 1716: " But though Ave and the Quakers do 
thus differ widely, yet 'tis observable that when any of 
them do leave their own way and become Christians, they 
generally make their application to your missionary for 
baptism, instead of going to the dissenting teachers, who, 
though ten to one of us, do not count one Quaker to ten 
that come over to the Church." 

* Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. II., page 190. 

t Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol II., page 422. 



90 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

man, " an honest and discreet young man/' as 
he styles him. Penn was wofully deceived, as 
often happened in his choice of men. He 
writes most enthusiastically abont each new ap- 
pointment, and after events usually were a 
strange contradiction to his judgment. Evans, 
if personally honest, was certainly not discreet. 
A worse choice could scarcely have been made to 
govern a colony of strict Quakers. He unneces- 
sarily shocked their anti-martial principles by 
pressing forward his schemes for colonial de- 
fense. He tried to force them into compromis- 
ing measures by a false report that the French 
fleet was in the Delaware, and rode through 
Philadelphia asking all to arm. To this the 
Quakers responded by quieting attending their 
mid-week meeting. In company with William 
Penn, Jr., the degenerate son of the proprietor, 
he engaged in festivities in the poorer haunts 
of the city, and in the Indian towns, which 
shocked the sense of stern morality to which the 
people's thoughts were attuned. He tried to col- 
lect a fine for disrespect from an honest but rather 
irascible old Quaker minister and Assemblyman, 
who cried out: " He is but a boy. We'll kick him 
out," and won only contempt for his persecution. 
He persuaded the Delaware authorities to erect 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 91' 

a fort and levy a tax on Philadelphia commerce, 
which was a violation of charter. Three Friends 
of his own party — Kichard Hill, Isaac Xorris 
and Samuel Preston — ran their boat past the 
fort in spite of the fire, and when the commander 
pursued, carried him off and landed him at 
Salem, New Jersey. This broke up the exaction 
of " powder money.'^ Altogether Evans was a 
great failure as Governor. Logan did his best to 
advise his chief, but finally counseled Penn to 
recall him, as also did the Assembly. It is not to 
be w^ondered at that the anti-proprietary party, 
under Lloyd, ruled the Assembly, and the friends 
of Penn hung their heads. 

In 1704 a remonstrance w^as sent to the Pro- 
prietor, which was the most severe stroke he ever 
received. It was the work of Lloyd, signed 
by him as Speaker of the Assembly, and if we 
are to believe Isaac Xorris and James Logan, the 
signature w^as effected after adjournment, wdien 
he was no longer Speaker, the address was 
never read to the Assembly, and in order to pre- 
serve the appearance of regularity, the minutes 
were interpolated. That the people had some 
ground to complain of the choice of Deputy Gov- 
ernor may well be admitted, but this was quite 
as much Penn's misfortune as theirs, and was 



92 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

only an error of judgment. That tliey had jnst 
then cause to complain of the hardships the Eng- 
lish government was putting on them in the mat- 
ter of oaths, was also true, but Penn was doing 
all he could to remedy it. The other charges 
of oppression " about our civil rights by the Pro- 
prietary/' in various details were too trivial to 
be so seriously enumerated and intemperately ad- 
vanced. There was an animus about the paper 
worse than the complaints, which hurt the good- 
hearted Proprietor deeply. He had spent his for- 
tune, and was in debt as a result of his Pennsyl- 
vania burden. He thought he had given every 
reasonable concession, more than w^ere enjoyed 
elsewhere, and if things were wrong he had ex- 
pected kindly and reasonable co-operation, not 
bitter, unfriendly and unreasonable attack. 

That Friends were to some extent on Lloyd's 
side in the matter, is evident.* In their minds 
he was the champion of personal liberty, to 
which the country Friends especially were in- 
ordinately attached. But that they still held to 
Penn is proven by the next election, in 1705, 



* " He carries so fair with our weak country people, and 
those that long looked upon him to be the champion ot 
Friends' cause in government matters in former times, that 
there is no possessing them." 

Logan to Penn, Correspondence, Vol. II., page 119. 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 93 

when Lloyd's party was left in a small minority 
in an Assembly of which all the members were 
Friends except one.^' Lloyd himself got in by 
the election of the city after being left out by 
the county, but lost his speakership. 

The doings of Evans, however, restored 
Lloyd's majority for several years following, 
and the attempted impeachment of Logan on 

* Even the quiet Friends did not get through, this elec- 
tion without reproach. " This meeting, understanding 
of some disorderly carriage, language and deportment at 
Chester, the last election, by some professing truth, the 
meeting appoints to draw something m reprehen- 
sion thereof, and bring the same to the next Quarterly 
Meeting." 

The next meeting adopted their report. " This meeting 
understands there have been some persons that make pro- 
fession of the blessed truth and peaceable spirit of the 
Lord Jesus with us, but for want of keeping to it in them- 
selves contrary fruits appear, so as to take liberty to speak 
and act as they please. . . . Some in this county at the 
last election, where their moderation should have ap- 
peared, but other fruits were brought forth, and seditious 
words and practices, insinuations and turbulent behavior 
. . . under a fair color of liberty and privilege to pro- 
mote their sinister ends, to take revenge on those against 
whom they have taken a disgust. The consideration of 
these things hath brought a weighty concern upon this 
meeting that any should sacrifice the peace of the people 
to a private revenge. This meeting desires all monthly 
meetings to deal with such, and if they prove stubborn and 
unruly, and will not be reclaimed, then to acquit our holy 
profession on them." 

Chester Quarterly Meeting, 1706. 



94 A Quaker Expei'ime?it in Government, 

certain charges relating to the tenure of office 
of the judges, Avas the result. Logan defended 
himself vigorously, and finally went to Eng- 
land, where he was triumphantly acquitted a 
little later, both legally and morally. 

The people seemed to be tired of the bicker- 
ings of the Assembly, and in 1710 elected a new 
one, not one old member being returned, and 
every one friendly to Penn. For the two remain- 
ing years of the Proprietor's healthy life matters 
went smoothly. Evans' successor, Charles Gook- 
in, was a reputable gentleman, of a difficult dis- 
position, and probably insane the latter part of 
his career. lie did not harmonize with the As- 
sembly, nor indeed with his Council, but did not 
greatly shock the people. David Lloyd was 
temporarily out of public life, and when he re- 
turned it was with a more kindly spirit. 

The year 1710 was the beginning of a better 
time for Pennsylvania. A succession of fairly 
good Governors ensued. The people settled 
down under the wise charter of 1701, which 
granted all reasonable liberties. Immigration 
was intensely active. Material prosperity de- 
veloped at a rapid pace. Questions connected 
with oaths were somewhat troublesome, and 
small war clouds caused occasional uneasiness to 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 95 

conscientious Friends, but in the main peace 
reigned. 

Bad as some of Lloyd's methods were, there 
can be no doubt that they made Pennsylvania a 
democratic State, tenacious of liberty. A dif- 
ferent result would undoubtedly have ensued 
had the more dignified, but more aristocratic, 
system of Logan and Xorris and the pro- 
prietary party, remained unchallenged in power. 
Lloyd only voiced a very prevalent feeling which 
could not be restrained. 

The heart of the people had always been with 
Penn. They believed in his liberality, his sin- 
cerity, his wisdom. Llad he remained with them 
as Governor, or sent sympathetic and discreet 
deputies, there would have been practical una- 
nimity in his support; at least there w^ould have 
been no permanent opposition party. When his 
honest and pathetic address came to them in 
1710, after his triumphant vindication by the 
election, every heart responded, and with this we 
may fitly close the account of the not very har- 
monious early period of Pennsylvania legislative 
history : 

London, 29th Fourth month, 1710. 
My Old Friends:— Tt is a mournful consideration, and 
the cause of deep affliction to me, that I am forced, by 
the oppressions and disappointments which have fallen to 



9G A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

my share in this life, to speak to the people of that Prov- 
ince in a language 1 once hoped 1 should never have had 
occasion to use. But the many troubles and oppositions 
that 1 have met with from thence oblige me, in plainness 
and freedom, to expostulate with you concerning the causes 
of them. 

When it pleased God to open a way for me to settle 
that colony, 1 had reason to expect a solid comfort from 
the services done to many hundreds of people; and it 
Avas no small satisfaction to me that I have not been dis- 
appointed in seeing them prosper and growing up to a 
flourishing country, blessed with liberty, ease and plenty, 
beyond what many of themselves could expect, and want- 
ing nothing to make them happy but what, with a right 
temper of mind and prudent conduct, they might give 
themselves. But, alas! as to my part, instead of reap- 
ing the like advantages, some of the greatest of my trou- 
bles have arisen from thence. The many combats I have 
engaged in, the great pains and incredible expense for your 
welfare and ease, to the decay of my former estate, of 
which (however some there would represent it) 1 too sen- 
sibly feel the effects, with the undesein^ed opposition I 
have met with from thence, sink me into sorrow that, if 
not supported by a superior hand, might have overAvhelmed 
me long ago. And I cannot but think it hard measure 
that, while that has proved a land of freedom and flourish- 
ing, it should become to me, by whose means it was prin- 
cipally made a country, the cause of grief, trouble and 
poverty. 

For this reason I must desire you all, even of all pro- 
fessions and degrees, (for although all have not been en- 
gaged in the measures that have been taken, yet every man 
who has interest there is, or must be, concerned in them 
by their effects)— I must therefore, I say, desire you all, in 
a serious and true weightiness of mind, to consider what 
you are or have been doing: why matters must be carried 
on with these divisions and contentions, and what real 
causes have been given on my side for that opposition to 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 97 

me, and my interest, which I have met with, as if I were 
an enemy and not a friend, after all I have done and spent 
here and there. I am sure 1 know not of any cause what- 
soever. Were I sensible you really wanted anything of me, 
in the relation between us, that would make you happier, 
I should readily grant it, if any reasonable man would say 
it were fit for you to demand, provided you would also take 
such measures as were fit for me to join with. 

Here follows a resume of the Frame of Gov- 
ernment, which he declares he cares nothing 
about except to promote their good. 

The attacks on my reputation, the many indignities 
put upon me in papers sent over hither into the hands of 
those who could not be expected to make the most dis- 
creet and charitable use of them; the secret insinuations 
against my justice, besides the attempt made upon my 
estate; resolves passed in the assemblies for turning my 
quit-rents, never sold by me, to the support of my govern- 
ment; my lands entered upon without any regular 
method; my manors invaded (under pretence I had not 
duly surveyed them), and both these by persons princi- 
pally concerned in these attempts against me here; a 
right to my overplus land unjustly claimed by the pos- 
sessors of the tracts in which they are found; my private 
estate continually exhausting for the support of the gov- 
ernment, both here and there, and no provision made for 
it by that country. 

In short, when I reflect on all these heads, of which I 
have so much cause to complain, and, at the same time, 
think of the hardships I and my family have been re- 
duced to, in no small measure owing to my endeavors for 
and disappointments from that Province, I cannot but 
mourn the unhappiness of my portion, dealt to me from 
these of whom I had reason to expect much different and 



98 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

better things, nor can I but lament the unhappiness that 
too many of them are bringing on themselves, who, instead 
of pursuing the amicable ways of peace, love and unity, 
which I at first hoped to find in that retirement, are 
blind to their own interest, are oversetting that founda- 
tion on which your happiness might be built. 

Friends, the eyes of many are upon you; the people 
of many nations of Europe look on that country as a land 
of ease and quiet, wishing to themselves in vain the same 
blessings they conceive you may enjoy; but, to see the 
use you make of them, is no less the cause of surprise to 
others, while such bitter complaints and reflections are 
seen to come from you, of which it is difficult to conceive 
either the sense or meaning. What are the distresses, 
grievances and oppressions that the papers sent from hence 
so often say you languish under, while others have cause 
to believe you have hitherto lived or might live the hap- 
piest of any of the Queen's dominions? 

It is a certain sign you are strangers to oppression, and 
know nothing but the name, when you so highly be- 
stow it on matters so inconsiderable; but that business 1 
find is adjusted. Could 1 know any real oppressions you 
lie under, that it is in my power to remedy (and what 1 
wish you would take proper measures to remedy if you 
truly feel any such), I would be as ready on my part to 
remove them as you to desire it; but according to the best 
judgment I can make of the complaints I have seen (and 
jou once thought I had a pretty good one), I must, in a 
deep sense of sorrow, say that I fear the kind hand of 
Providence, that has so long favored and protected you, 
will, by the ingratitude of many there, to the great mercies 
of God hitherto shown them, be at length provoked to con- 
vince them of their unworthiness. 

T must think there is a regard due to me that has not 
of late been paid; pray consider of it fully, and think 
soberly what you have to desire of me, on the one hand. 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 99 

and ought to perform to me on the other; for from the 
next Assembly T shall expect to know what you resolve 
and what I may depend on. If I must continue my re- 
gards to you, let me be engaged to it by a like disposition 
in you toward me. But if a plurality after this shall think 
they owe me none or no more than for some years I have 
met with, let it, on a fair election, be so declared; and 
1 shall then, without further suspense, know what I have 
to rely upon. God gi^^e you his wisdom and fear to direct 
you, that yet our poor country may be blessed with peace, 
love and industry, and we may once more meet good 
friends, and live so to the end, our relation to the truth 
having but the same true interest. 

I am, with great truth and most sincere regard, your 
real friend, as well as just Proprietor and Governor, 

William Penn. 

It required about thirty years to settle down 
into steady government. Then followed thirty 
years of the greatest peace and prosperity. 
There were no more contentions between Gov- 
ernor and Assembly; no more angry recrimina- 
tions upon which to base partisan capital; no 
more striving for liberties, for every reasonable 
liberty worth striving for was secured; no more 
attempts to exalt proprietary interests at the ex- 
pense of public interests; no more partisan 
strife, for there were no parties. The era of in- 
ternal dissension had closed; the era of external 
war had not opened. For a generation the 
Quaker government went quietly on, performing 
its functions with vigor and system. Paper 

L.GfC. 



100 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

money, fully secured by individual property, 
as well as State credit, was issued in moderate 
amounts, was never depreciated, and developed 
business enterprise by taking the place of gold 
and silver drained to England to purchase the 
needed importation of a busy and growing popu- 
lation. Taxes were light and were mostly raised 
from tavern licenses. Indians were friendly, 
and were kept so by frequent presents and pur- 
chases of land. The criminal laws, while rather 
severe, were humanely executed, and life and 
property were secured by an alert magistracy 
and a conscientious population. Oaths were vol- 
untary; war did not exist. There were no mili- 
tia companies, but little martial feeling. All 
religions were free and on an equal footing. Po- 
litical and personal rights were guarded with 
jealous care. The best men of the colony, men 
of the highest education, morality and prop- 
erty interests, held, by the choice of the people, 
the high offices of government. ^o taint of 
political corruption seems to have visited the 
dignity of office-holding, but there " was magis- 
tracy in reverence with the people, and kept 
from being hurtful to them." Could Penn have 
seen this thirty years' peace, he would not have 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 101 

been utterly discouraged, nor deemed the " Holy 
Experiment '' a failure. 

In 1739 England and Spain went to war, and 
this was the beginning of the end. In another 
chapter military questions will be taken up. It 
is only necessary here to refer to the protection 
and extension of popular privileges indirectly 
resulting from the wars. War meant privateer- 
ing, and privateering destroyed commerce, and 
this touched Pennsylvania immediately. War 
meant taxes, and taxes produced discontent, dif- 
ferences with the Governors about the rights of 
the Assembly, cessation of friendly feeling, and 
a re-creation of parties. 

The Spanish war was soon over, but it was fol- 
lowed by one with the Erench and their Indian 
allies in 1744. This lasted in America, in some 
part or other, practically continuously till 1763, 
and when it ended the Quaker Assembly was no 
more. 

Parties were now formed on new lines. They 
had largely disappeared during the twenties and 
thirties, but at this time we find a marked dif- 
ference, growing more emphatic with the years 
between the proprietary party and the " coun- 
try " party. The Quakers were now in consid- 
erable minority in the Province, but were practi- 



103 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

cally all on one side. The Proprietors had left 
the Society and joined the Episcopal Church, 
and that body rallied around them. So also did 
the Presbyterians, and all who believed in a 
vigorous, warlike policy. These stood together 
for proprietary rights and interests, and had as 
their stronghold the Governor and Council. 

The Friends and the Germans and their sym- 
pathizers maintained their ascendency in the 
popularly elected Assembly, where they did 
practically as they pleased. They opposed pro- 
prietary pretensions, favored grants to the In- 
dians, and cut down expenses for military opera- 
tions wherever possible. Their efforts during 
the years from 1740 to 1756 were directed to 
securing their rights as representatives of the 
people in the matters of protesting against secret 
and arbitrary instructions to the Governor by the 
Proprietors; of raising money in whatever way 
seemed good to them; of insistence on the large 
proprietary estates being subject to taxation as 
other similar estates were; and of independence 
of royal instructions when they contravened 
their charter. 

The machinery by which the Quakers held 
their party together, judging from the results, 
was effective. During the thirty years of peace 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 103 

they had become competent politicians. It is 
uncertain how they selected their candidates, or 
by what means they elected them. There is no 
reason to suspect any immoral proceedings, for 
their Assemblymen were men of excellent 
standing, and many of them served for a long 
time. Most of them were farmers, and this 
gave the few men who knew something about 
law, like David Lloyd, the tw^o N^orrises, and 
Benjamin Franklin, their great influence. It 
is probable that a loosely organized town meet- 
ing (called for each case as it arose) determined 
the choice, and that the general interest in the 
issue, and community of political tendencies 
carried the election. We hear nothing of diffi- 
culties within the party, and they were not the 
sort of people to tolerate bosses quietly. In 
these matters of liberty they were solidly and 
effectively united in the general struggle against 
Crown and Proprietor, which led up to the Rev- 
olutionary war, and held their own as honorably 
and as successfully as the liberty party of any 
other colony. 

The Province very early in its history, while 
supplied with many of the necessities of life, was 
short of money. This resulted from the large 
purchases from England, which drained the 



104 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

country of gold and silver. This condition ex- 
isted up to the Eevolution, the balance of trade 
being almost continually against the Colony. 
Much real suffering and great stagnation in trade 
resulted from this state of affairs, and the issu- 
ance of paper money became almost a necessity. 
It was entered upon cautiously. There being 
no banks or opportunities for specie redemp- 
tion, it was arranged that bills of credit, which 
could be used as money, should be issued to in- 
dividuals as a loan for a term of years, secured by 
real estate or plate. Interest and a part of the 
principal were paid back yearly. The amount of 
the issue being reasonable and the security am- 
ple the money never depreciated, as was the case 
in nearly all the Colonies, while the stimulus to 
trade was sudden and marked. This process was 
prudently repeated, and the interest, with tavern 
licenses, enabled the Colony to get along almost 
without taxes during the years of peace. Though 
Logan, Norris, and other conservative men op- 
posed the practice, it seems to have been justified 
by the results, and there was sufficient self- 
restraint to prevent an over-issue. 

But the wars demanded a vast proportionate 
increase in the expenses of government, and new 
problems presented themselves. The Assembly 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 105 

proposed to meet the increased expenses by fur- 
ther issues of bills of credit, but were in 1740 re- 
strained by the English Privy Council, acting 
probably at the instance of the Proprietors, by 
an order prohibiting any new issues, unless a 
clause was also enacted suspending the execu- 
tion of the law till the royal assent was obtained. 
The Governor was instructed to refuse to sign 
any bill violating this order. 

The charter of William Penn had by this time 
become an object of veneration with the popular 
party in Pennsylvania, and under it they had 
deemed themselves secure in the manner of rais- 
ing money, subject only to the veto of the Gov- 
ernor. It is true that after five years they might 
also look for a royal veto, but this only involved 
the necessity of re-enacting the offending law. 
The new order of the Privy Council therefore 
seemed an interference with one of their 
choicest privileges. However, if they could 
persuade Governor Thomas to sign notwith- 
standing hostile orders from abroad, the laws 
would be valid; and this they managed to do 
by a judicious reduction of his salary until he 
was brought to terms. The struggle was con- 
tinued with successive Governors till the Revolu- 
tion, under the effective leadership of Franklin, 



106 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

and while often baulked by the proprietary inter- 
ests, the popular party in the Assembly grad- 
ually regained all lost ground. While legally 
there was no change, practically there was a con- 
stant decrease of proprietary interference and a 
constant growth of popular rights. 

The question was complicated with another. 
The Governor was appointed by the Proprietors, 
and was in fact their agent. It was his duty to 
look after first the interests of his employers, and 
afterwards those of the Colony. When peace 
prevailed those interests were so nearly identical 
that no controversy arose. In some cases, nota- 
bly that of Sir William Keith, the representa- 
tives of the people were so much nearer, and it 
was so much more pleasant to live in harmony 
with them, that the Governor elected popular 
rather than proprietary favor, and lost his place, 
through the efforts of James Logan. Later the 
Governor had to give a heavy bond, amounting 
during the v;ars to £5,000, to obey instructions. 
Popular bids for favor could hardly be expected 
to exceed this sum, and the Governor was fairly 
secured to the side of the Penns. 

It was conceded that the Governor had certain 
executive duties in which it was proper that he 
should receive detailed instructions, but when it 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 107 

came to legislative questions stringent and some- 
times secret instructions as to vetoing bills were 
felt to be a tacit invasion of legislative privileges. 
"William Penn, at the urgency of David Lloyd, 
had wisely given up the power of veto in the 
case of a bill previously assented to by his dep- 
uty, and he and his widow had carefully con- 
fined instructions to general directions to sup- 
press vice, to discourage faction, to follow the 
advice of the Council, and to protect every one 
in his rights. During the era of good feeling 
the Assembly would ask to see the instructions 
to the Governor and he would good-naturedly 
comply. 

After the wars began the Governor refused to 
show his instructions, and the Assembly protested 
against the folly of their spending much time in 
elaborating bills when all the time the Governor 
had in his closet his private instructions to veto 
them. They wished to be able to confer with 
him and by judicious compromises to secure his 
assent to their bills. All they could do was to 
find out gradually the character of his limita- 
tions by his actions, and they rightly felt they 
were kept working in the dark. They procured 
from their agent in England in 1755 a copy of 
Governor Morris's instructions, and raised a 



108 A Quaker Experiment in Government 

storm against him bj its publication. They 
refused, notwithstanding the urgency of the war, 
to vote any supplies if these instructions were 
brought into operation. Their importunity and 
firmness finally prevailed, and like the opposition 
to bills of credit, proprietary instructions before 
the Revolutionary w^ar were allowed to drop out 
of sight. 

Another subject of conflict was the taxation of 
Proprietary properties. The Penns were not 
only the owners of the unoccupied lands of the 
Province, they were also in their private ca- 
pacity owners of large tracts within the State 
which they held like any other private persons. 
Moreover, they enjoyed an income from quit- 
rents from most of the lands they had sold. All 
this property they claimed was exempt from 
taxation. It would have been manifestly im- 
proper to tax the large extent of unproductive 
land of early times, and besides, there were no 
land taxes of consequence levied, except for 
county purposes, and these did not reach the 
unsurveyed domain of the Proprietors. 

But as in the other cases the wars brought this 
to a focus. The people in response to a demand 
for money to protect their frontier against in- 
vasion insistently made by the Governor, sug- 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 109 

gested that the Penn estates should bear their 
share in the joint defence. The Proprietors, in 
the view of the Assembly, while possessing cer- 
tain feudal rights which they did not propose to 
disturb, were also private land owners and on a 
level with all other private land owners. In 
1755, after Braddock's defeat, they levied a tax 
on all estates in the Province, real and personal, 
including quit-rents and unsettled land, which 
tax was to redeem bills of credit to the amount of 
£60,000. Governor Morris insisted that his in- 
structions required him to protect the interests 
of his employers, and refused to pass the bill. 
The Assembly replied to his arguments that it 
was better to give part in taxes than to lose the 
whole by the French, and threw upon him and 
the Proprietors the responsibility for the de- 
fenceless state of the Province. The Indians 
were scalping on the frontiers, and there were 
daily distressing demands for protection, but the 
Assembly judged that the principles involved in 
their struggle with the Governor were worth more 
than temporary security. ^N^either yielded until 
finally a solution was found in an offer of a free 
gift by the Penns of £5,000, with the under- 
standing that it should not be considered as a 
substitute for the tax. The Assembly said noth- 



110 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

ing on this latter point, but passed a bill raising 
£55,000, and omitted the taxation of the property 
of the Penns. The £5,000 was to be collected 
by the Assembly out of the arrears of quit-rents, 
and hence was not quite so liberal as it seemed 
to be. 

Bills for revenue followed in rapid succession, 
and the controversy was renewed. Benjamin 
Franklin was sent to England to look after pro- 
vincial rights, and he invoked the aid of the 
home government. After considerable fencing 
the proprietary case was defeated, and the As- 
sembly had the satisfaction of completely carry- 
ing its point. 

The controversies of the time are shown in a 
private letter of James Pemberton, a member of 
the Assembly, to Henton Brown, an Englishman, 
dated 15th of Tenth month, 1755: 

" When I last A^'Tote thee, our new Governor, R. H. 
Morris, was but just come to town, and as the Represen- 
tatives were but newly elected the Assembly had not met 
him; their sessions began soon after, agreeable to our 
charter, on the 14th of October, which were but short at 
that time and passed chiefly in compliments to each other, 
and being unusual to do business at the first time of their 
sitting, they made the Governor a present of five hundred 
pounds, and, what is a particular privilege to their own, 
adjourned to the 2d of last, when they met for the 
dispatch of business. The Governor very warmly rec- 
ommended to them the making provision for dislodging 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. Ill 

the French on the borders of this and the neighboring 
Provinces. A majority of the House being of our Society, 
they could not (as they never at any time have) hterally 
comply with such a demand. However, as we are always 
willing to demonstrate our allegiance to our King, by a 
ready compliance with his instructions, as far as they do 
not affect our religious principles, in imitation of the prac- 
tice of former Assemblies of this Province, they cheerfully 
voted the sum of twenty thousand pounds for the King's 
use, and sent up a bill to the Governor for striking that 
sum in paper bills of credit to be sunk in ten years by ex- 
tending an act for laying an excise on spirituous liquors, 
which act hath subsisted for several years in this Province, 
and been experienced to be a tax the least burthensome to 
the inhabitants. In which time the said bills of credit 
would be called in, and the demand of the Crown im- 
mediately satisfied, the excise being proved sufficient 
to raise more, one year with another, than two thou- 
sand pounds. Notwithstanding this scheme is so reason- 
able in itself, yet the Governor hath positively refused 
passing that bill, urging it to be contrary to the instruc- 
tions from the King, in the year 1740, to Governor Thomas. 

"At this time we have but £80,000 in paper bills of 
credit amongst us, none of which goes out to the people, 
but on mortgages, which yield an annual interest to the 
Province, by which the heavy expenses of maintaining our 
friendship with -the Indians and other charges of govern- 
ment are defrayed; as well the farmers who purchase 
land from the Proprietaries are enabled to improve their 
settlements, and make their payments to them by bor- 
rowing from the loan office, by which means the paper 
currency hath proved of singular service in advancing their 
interest and all parties share the benefit thereof, which 
w^ould be more extensive could we obtain an additional 
sum to what is now current, more especially as our impor- 
tation of English manufactures is prodigiously increased 
within these few years. But nothing of this kind is at^ 



112 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

tempted at this time, and I only mention it to convince 
thee of the real advantages of paper currency, and that 
the sum now current is very trifling compared with the 
income of our trade, and that we cannot do without it 
while we continue to send to you the silver and gold we 
procure from the West Indies in return for the produce of 
the country which we export thither. The only intent of 
striking the present sum proposed is that the crown may 
have the immediate benelit of it, there being no other fund 
by which such a sum can be raised in the same time. A 
land tax would be a grievance too great for this infant 
colony, and such as the people cannot at this time bear to 
pay; besides, is it not reasonable we should have the 
liberty of raising money upon ourselves in a manner least 
burthensome. A long contest hath subsisted between the 
Governor and the Assembly, in the course of which, from 
his manner of treating the subject, as well as the opinion 
of our last Governor Hamilton in his message to the last 
assembly, we have very strong reasons to conclude that 
the royal instructions are not the obstacle to the passing 
our bill, but some private instructions from our Proprietar- 
ies, who in every place of their conduct towards tlie people 
of this i^rovince for some years past appear to be aiming 
to subvert the valuable privileges granted us by the 
charters from King Charles and their worthy father, in 
consequence of which under Providence this province w'as 
settled and is now become a great income to them and of 
no small advantages to our mother country; therefore the 
assembly, finding no pi'ospect of redress by contesting the 
point with the governor here, have draw^n up a remon- 
strance to the King which was sent via New York to our 
agents P. Partridge and Pobert Charles to be presented 
to him setting forth what Ave would have done had not 
as we apprehend the proprietary restrictions to their lieu- 
tenant i)revented; therefore the request I have to make 
to thee relates to the province in general, and it will be 
kindly accepted here, if thou wilt so far favor us with thy 
friendsliip as to join thy assistance to obtain a ready 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 113 

passage of our remonstrance to the King, being suspicious 
some of the Proprietaries' friends may use their endeavors 
to prevent it, as was the case with an address of a neigh- 
boring province lately. We have requested the assistance 
of the Meeting for Sufferings, which I hope they will cheer- 
fully afford us^ to which thy influence may greatly con- 
tribute. It is a matter of considerable consequence to the 
inhabitants; our liberties are at stake, and I think we 
have as much reason to dread an attack upon them from 
our Proprietary, whose ambitious views seem bent on en- 
slaving us, as any danger that may be at present thought 
to threaten us; as should they gain their point, and we are 
to be governed by their private instructions inconsistent 
w^ith our charter, we can no longer pretend to claim the 
title of being the freemen of Pennsylvania. It may be 
necessary further to remark that our public funds are 
much reduced by very heavy expenses of Indian Treaties 
and maintaining at this time a large number of Indian 
allies who have taken refuge in this province from the 
Ohio; and though this is the case, the Assembly has ex- 
erted, themselves as far as they had the means in their 
own power, and have voted five thousand pounds to be 
laid out in provisions for the King's troops against the 
time they may arrive, in pursuance of the royal orders 
from Sir Thos. Robinson of the 26th October, received 
while the Assembly was sitting. 

While the Quakers gave up control of the 
Assembly in 1756 the policy of the succeeding 
Assemblies in respect to these difficult subjects 
remained the same down to the Revolutionary 
war. Gradually there grew up a party which, 
angered by proprietary resistance, urged upon 
the English government the destruction of the 
Charter and the creation of a Crown Colony. 



114 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

On this point the Friends were divided. A dec- 
ade earlier none of them would have considered 
the forfeiture of Penn's charter. Now the vex- 
ations of proprietary government seemed very 
objectionable, and many joined Avith Franklin 
and other radicals in the movement. It was al- 
ways opposed by the more substantial members, 
and nothing was accomplished till the Revolu- 
tion solved the problem in an unlooked for way. 
It has been usually represented that the trou- 
bles of the years between 1740 and 1756 were 
the result of a conflict between the Governor and 
the Quaker Assembly over the subject of the 
defence of the Province from French and In- 
dian attack. How much this may have been an 
effective cause below the surface it is difficult to 
tell. So far as one can judge from the public 
records, it was a controversy betwen proprietary 
and popular rights and privileges, in which the 
popular party, almost exclusively Friendly in its 
representatives though not in its membership,* 
acquitted itself so as to win success Avithout sacri- 

* Thomas Penn writes to Governor Hamilton, in 1760, re- 
ferring to a proposed visit of William Logan to England: 
" You may be assured I will treat him with regard, and 
show him I have no disregard to those of his profession 
(the Friends), except on their levelling republican system 
of government so much adopted by them." 



Democracy and Civil Liberty. 115 

ficing tlie stability of the government. A 
French invasion was less terrible than the sur- 
render of the powers of the Assembly, and the 
people demanded that the Proprietor should 
yield. Then they were as liberal as in any other 
State in supplying the resources for defence. 
They bought or intimidated the Governors one 
by one and finally carried the war into England 
and conquered. 



116 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 



CHAPTER V. 

KELIGIOrS LIBERTY. 

The strenuous and in the main consistent be- 
lief of the early Quakers in religious liberty, and 
the supremacy of conscience was founded jon 
their doctrine of the divine character and au- 
thority of the Light by which the conscience was 
gaiided and instructed. It was sealed to them by 
the severe persecutions of England. AVhile the>^ 
contended that this light would in essential p^er- 
ticulars lead all obedient children into closeness 
of sympathy and substantial similarity of beli.e% 
they recognized the varying degree of its accept- 
ance by different people, and were willing to' 
leave the uninstructed to its further operations 
and the inspired teaching of those who were more 
fully confirmed in its counsels. 

The writings of the English Quakers and of 
William Penn in particular are replete with ex- 
pressions against interference by government 
with the private beliefs of any subjects, and with 
the actions for which they claimed a conscien- 
tious sanction, so long as they were orderly and 
moral. Penn announced in 1670 that he was "a 



Religious Liberty. 117 

friend of universal toleration in faitli and wor- 
ship," and wrote " The Great Case of Liberty of 
Conscience Briefly Debated and Defended/' His 
main statement is " That imposition, restraint 
and persecution for conscience' sake highly in- 
vade the Divine prerogative." This is amplified 
by the arguments now so familiar, and illus- 
trated by historical references and quotations 
from classical and Christian writings in great 
profusion. 

The persecutions of the Quakers were a pen- 
alty for the staunch maintenance of principles 
and practices for which they believed they had 
the authority of enlightened consciences. They 
were firmly convinced of their rightfulness, and 
loudly exclaimed against the injustice of oppres- 
sion. They, however, unlike the Puritans, gen- 
eralized from their own case and arrived at the 
conclusion that they were working for a common 
liberty, not the establishment of their own ideas 
of truth. The settlers of Massachusetts had 
formed a commonwealth in which " truth " was 
to rule, and " error " to be punished and exiled. 
They, too, had suffered in England, and had emi- 
grated to secure liberty of conscience for them- 
selves. They had formed a Puritan reservation 
at great expense of time, treasure and heroic self- 



118 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

sacrifice. They must preserve this at whatever 
cost. " There is no room in Christ's triumphant 
army for tolerationists.""^ How could they see 
their State invaded, their laws defied, their eccle- 
siastical system scorned, by the very agencies 
they had left England to avoid? If Episcopacy 
was on one hand to be ruled out, still more neces- 
sary was it that they should show to the world 
that the errors of the Baptists and Quakers had 
no place there, and so the heretics were sent to 
Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, and the very 
persistent Quakers were hanged on Boston Com- 
mon. 

But matters were a little further developed 
by Penn's time — Quaker theology a little less 
dogmatic and literal than Puritan; there was 
more faith in Truth making its own way, and 
the broader view prevailed. f 

* Longfellow's " New England Tragedies." 

t " Let the tares grow with the wheat, errors of judg- 
ment remain till removed by the power of light and con- 
viction. A religion without it is inhuman, since reason 
only makes humanity. For my part, I frankly declare that 
T cannot think that God will damn any man for the errors 
of his judgment, and God forbid that all or most of the 
world err willingly in understanding." 

William Penn to Duke of Ormond, " Academy," January 
II., 1896. 



Religious Liberty. 119 

'NoY did tlie principle stop with toleration. 
Pennsylvania was not to be a Quaker Colony 
where other sects were tolerated. One might as 
well tolerate the holding of property as of opin- 
ion. The principle was not based on the favor 
of rnlers; it was an inherent right. It was not 
to be toleration; it was to be religious liberty 
and freedom from all State interference. So 
said Penn, and he placed the maxim in the fore- 
front in all his " Frames of Government/' and 
despite some dissatisfaction at first among a few 
Quakers * it always remained there. 

We have seen that the " Fundamental Con- 
stitutions " were the products of Penn's wres- 
tling in company with unknown advisers with 
the problems of government, and that they ex- 
press, perhaps more nearly than subsequent pub- 
lications, his own ideas. The first article is 
worth quoting entire. 

Considering that it is impossible that any people or 
Government should ever prosper, where men render not 
unto God that which is God's, as well as to Caesar that 
which is Caesar's; and also perceiving the disorders and 
mischiefs that attend those places where force is used in 
matters of faith and worship, and seriously reflecting upon 
the tenure of the new and spiritual Government, and that 
both Christ did not use force and that He did not ex- 

* " Pennsylvania Magazine," Vol. VI,, page 467, et seq. 



120 A Quaker Experimei^ in Government. 

pressly forbid it in His holy religion, so also that the tes- 
timony of His blessed messengers was, that the weapons 
of the Christian warfare were not carnal but spiritual; and 
further weighing that this unpeopled country can never 
be planted if there be not due encouragement given to 
sober people of all sorts to plant, and that they will not 
esteem anything a sufficient encouragement when they are 
not assured, but that after all the hazards of the sea, and 
the troubles of a wilderness, the labours of their hands 
and sweat of their brows may be made the forfeit of their 
conscience, and they and their wives and children ruined 
because they worship God in some different way from that 
which may be more generally owned, Therefore, in rever- 
ence to God, the father of lights and spirits, the author, 
as well as object, of all divine knowledge, faith and wor- 
ship, T do hereby declare for me and irune, and establish 
it for the first fundamental of the government of my coun- 
try, that every person that does or shall reside therein 
shall have and enjoy the free possession of his or her faith 
and exercise of worship towards God, in such way and 
manner as every person shall in conscience believe is most 
acceptable to God; and so long as every such person useth 
not this Christian liberty to licentiousness, that is to say, 
to speak loosely and profanely of God, Christ or Religion, 
or to commit any evil in their conversation, he or she shall 
be protected in the enjoyment of the aforesaid Christian 
liberty by the civil Magistrate.* 

The first clause of the charter of 1701, under 
which was operated the government of Pennsyl- 
vania till 1776, was: 

Because no people can be truly happy, though under 
the greatest enjoyment of civil liberties, if abridged of the 
freedom of their consciences as to their religious profession 
and worship, and Almighty God being the one Lord ot 

* " Pennsylvania Magazine," October, 1896. 



Religious Liberty. 121 

Conscience, father of Light and Spirits, and the author, 
as well as object, of all divine knowledge, taith and wor- 
ship, who only doth enlighten the mind and persuade and 
convince the understandings of people, I do hereby grant 
and declare that no person or persons inhabiting in this 
province or territories who shall confess or acknowledge 
one Almighty God, the creator, upholder and ruler of the 
world, and profess him or themselves obliged to live quietly 
under the civil government, shall be in any case molested 
or prejudiced in his or their person or estate, because of 
his or their conscientious persuasion or practice, nor be 
compelled to frequent or maintain any religious worship, 
place or ministry, contrary to his or their mind, or to do 
or suffer any other act or thing contrary to their religious 
persuasion. And that all persons who also profess to be- 
lieve in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, shall be 
capable (notwithstanding their other persuasions and prac- 
tices in point of conscience and religion) to serve this gov- 
ernment in any capacity, both legislatively and executively, 
he or they solemnly promising, when lawfully required, 
allegiance to the king as Sovereign, and fidelity to the 
Proprietor and Governor, etc. 

We have from tliese Penn's idea. It in- 
volved perfect liberty of conscience, opinion and 
worship, and perfect equality among Christian 
people in the matter of office holding. That it 
did not extend to non-Christians is a matter of 
regret. It is probable that a charter could not 
have been obtained on this basis. It was ex- 
pected that Penn would found a Christian col- 
ony. At this time there were practically no pro- 
fessing non-Christians, except perhaps a very few 
Jews. 



122 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

Some of the associates and immediate suc- 
cessors of the Founder took a narrower view of 
this principle. Not content with excluding 
Jews, they also deprived Catholics, by a religious 
test, of the opportunity to hold office. 

Penn was largely instrumental in securing 
the passage in England of the Toleration Act, 
in 1689. This greatly relieved his fellow- 
believers of the extreme suffering they had en- 
dured for nearly fifty years for conscience' sake, 
[t also enabled various dissenting sects to prac- 
tice unmolested their forms of worship, provided 
they would subscribe to a declaration of fidelity 
to the sovereign, and would condemn the doc- 
trine of transubstantiation, and of the worship of 
Mary and the Saints. 

This act, beneficent and liberal in comparison 
with anything England had known, was used 
to fetter the broader principle which Penn 
sought to establish in his colony. Not only 
when his charter was taken away, in 1692-4, 
and Governor Eletcher administered affairs in a 
w^ay to displease all of Penn's friends, but after- 
wards as well, was lower ground taken. The 
tests which in England were made a condition 
of the permission of public w^orship, became un- 
der Eletcher an indispensable requisite for all 
offices. 



Religious Liberty. 123 

In 1G96, in the Markham constitution, to 
which Penn acquiesced, the same tests were con- 
tinued. The acquiescence may have been due 
to the very slender hold he felt he had on his 
charter under William and Mary,. and the Whig 
politicians by whom they were surrounded. 
When he returned to the colony he again forced 
his freer scheme into the constitution of 1701, 
and attempted to make it permanent by the 
pledge " for himself and his heirs, that the first 
article of this charter, relating to liberty of con- 
science, and every part and clause thereof, ac- 
cording to the true intent and meaning thereof, 
shall be kept and remain without any alteration 
inviolably forever.'' 

His charter, granted by authority of the Eng- 
lish crown, gave him full right to make such a 
pledge. But in violation of this right, in 1702, 
another order of the crown required of all offi- 
cers of colonies that they should subscribe to all 
the tests of the Toleration Act. Penn felt too 
insecure to object to this, and Colonel Quarry, 
the Judge of the Admiralty, the bitter opponent 
of the Quakers, forced it upon members of the 
Council, Judges and Assemblymen. They all 
took it, to Penn's indignation, who asked, 
''Why should you obey any order . . . which 



124 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

is not according to patent or law here, nor 
the laws of your own country? " * He advised 
resistance, but met with no support in Pennsyl- 
vania. Even Logan deserted him. " Be pleased 
not to set such a value as thou dost upon the 
charter (that of 1701, just quoted) granted, for 
most are of opinion it is not worth so many 
pence, and if mine were asked, I should still rate 
it much lower." 

JSTot content with submitting quietly to the 
imposition of the test by English authority, the 
Assembly, in 1705, practically re-enacted it 
themselves. They required all members of the 
Assembly, and the provision afterwards ex- 
tended to all civil officers, to subscribe to the 
test, and support it by oath or affirmation.-f- 

* Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 247. 

t The test taken by all civil officers in Pennsylvania 
was: 

" I, A. B., do sincerely promise and solemnly declare be- 
fore God and the world, that I will be faithful and bear 
true allegiance to Queen Anne. And I do solemnly pro- 
fess and declare that I do from my heart abhor, detest and 
renounce as impious and heretical that damnable doctrine 
and position that princes, excommunicated or deprived by 
the Pope or any authority of the See of Rome, may be 
deposed or murdered by their subjects or any person Avhat- 
soever. And I do declare that no foreign prince, person, 
prelate, state or potentate, hath or ought to have any 



Religious Liberty. 125 

This test stood, with some modification as to a 
denial of the rights of the Pretender, until re- 
moved bj Franklin and his associates in 1776, 
when Penn's old test of 1701 was readopted. 
It does not appear that any protests, either by 



power, jurisdiction, superiority, pre-eminence or authority, 
ecclesiastical or civil, within the realm of England or the 
dominions belonging thereunto. 

" And I, A. B., do solemnly and sincerely, in the pres- 
ence of God, profess, testify and declare that 1 do believe 
that in the Sacrament of the Lord's iSupper there is not 
any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine 
into the body and blood of Christ, at or after the consecra- 
tion thereof by any person whatsoever; and that the in- 
vocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other 
saint, and the sacrifice of Mass, as they are now used in 
the Church of Kome, are superstitious and idolatrous. 

" And I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, tes- 
tify and declare that I do make this declaration, and 
every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the 
words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by 
English, Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation or 
mental reservation whatsoever, and without any dispensa- 
tion already granted me for this purpose by the Pope, or 
any other person or authority whatsoever; or without 
thinking I am or may be acquitted before God and man, 
or absolved of this declaration or any part thereof, al- 
though the Pope or any other person or persons or power 
Avhatsoever should dispense with or annul the same, or 
declare that it was null and void from the beginning. 

*•' And I, A. B., profess faith in God the Father, and in 
Jesus Christ His eternal Son, the true God, and in the 
Holy Spirit, one God blessed forevermore; and do ac- 
knowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testa, 
ment to be given by Divine Inspiration.'' 



126 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

the Assembly or the meetings, were made against 
the use of this abridgment of the rights of office- 
holders. During the seventy years all officials 
subscribed without apparent demur. Catholics, 
Jews and Socinians were excluded from posi- 
tions under the State. They were also, by the 
imposition of the same test, denied the legal 
right to hold church property, or to become 
naturalized. In other words, while freedom of 
worship was permitted to all, it was intended to 
make Pennsylvania's government one of and for 
Orthodox Protestant Christians only. This was 
in advance of other colonies (except Khode 
Island and Maryland), where the Catholic wor- 
ship was prohibited, but behind Penn's enlight- 
ened conceptions of religious liberty and equality 
under the law. 

It is true Catholics were few in number (1400 
only in 1757), while the other prohibitions kept 
almost no one out of State employment. The 
Catholic religion was, both in England and 
America, the subject of bitter reprobation for its 
historical association with the Stuarts, and with 
the Colonial enemies, the Prench. These facts 
may explain, but hardly justify, the compla- 
cence with which their official disabilities were 
viewed during these years. In the general 



Religious Liberty. 127 

eulogy given to the Pennsylvania constitution, 
this exception to religious freedom should be 
borne in mind."^ One also is surprised to find 
that the Quakers made no objection to the im- 
position of any religious test. They could hon- 
estly subscribe to this one, but their general op- 
position to creeds, except when expressed in 
biblical words only, might have been expected to 
show itself in some public or private protest. 

It must therefore be recognized that notwith- 
standing the liberal charter, Penn's and the As- 
sembly's right to enact liberties and make laws 
was greatly restricted. The Privy Council an- 
nulled what it chose, and its decisions were de- 
termined by the views of the Attorney General, 
who thus became a greater power in legislation 
in certain particulars than Penn himself. Thus 
with regard to Penn's act concerning liberty of 
conscience, that irresponsible official Avrites : " I 
am of opinion that this law is not fit to be 
confirmed, no regard being had in it to the 
Christian religion, and also for that in the in- 
dulgence allowed to the Quakers in England by 
the statute of the first William and Mary," etc. 
The whole of Penn's liberal scheme, supported 

* This subject is fully treated in the Pennsylvania Maga- 
zine, Vol. IX., pages 365, etc., by Dr. Stille. 



128 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

at first by the voice of tlie people's representa- 
tives, went down before the opinion of one man. 

Penn was in no condition to resist. Bur- 
dened by debt incurred in support of his col- 
ony; his deputy a failure; his steward a fraud; 
his son a disappointment; he saw no recourse 
but to sell his province to the crown. Under 
these circumstances, he could only protest and be 
silent. Of the fifty-three laws vetoed by the 
Crown in 1705, some he agreed to have returned 
and amended, some he apologized for, and some 
he feebly defends. But when the "Act of privi- 
leges to a freeman," reading, " That no free- 
man shall be hurt, damnified, destroyed, tried 
or condemned, but by the lawful judgment of 
his twelve equals, or by the laws of the Prov- 
ince," was objected to because " This, we think, 
will interfere with the act for preventing frauds, 
etc.," he flamed out with his old liberty-loving 
spirit, — " I cannot help it ; 'tis the great char^ 
ter that all Englishmen are entitled to, and we 
were not so far to lose a little of it." * 



* For a detailed description of the English treatment of 
Pennsylvania enactments, see appendix to " The Statutes 
at Large of Pennsylvania," published by the State, Vo". 
II., 1896. The limitations of Penn's pov^^ers were never so 
clearly shown as in the extracts there printed from the 
Public Records of London. This work is not complete, 



Religious Liberty. 129 

To what extent did Penn desire favors for his 
own people in connection with government? 
That he hoped he was founding a Quaker State, 
conducted by and for them, is evident from 
many expressions. He probably shared the be- 
lief then prevalent in the Society, that Quaker- 
ism was simply Christianity shorn of human ac- 
cretions, and was destined to become universal. 
It was only necessary to entrench it in power by 
proper means, and its own intrinsic worth would 
draw the people to it. But he vigorously re- 
fused to allow any constitutional advantages to 
his denomination. " Every particular denomi- 
nation of the Christian religion is perfectly 
upon a level in Pennsylvania," wrote Thomas 
Penn, in 1757, speaking of facts as they were, 
and had always been, with the exceptions noted 
above. In the letter to Jasper Yeates, already 
quoted, Penn rebukes him for desiring to keep 
those not of the " Stock of David " from the gov- 
ernment. " We should look selfish and do that 
which we have cried out upon others for, 
namely, letting nobody touch with government 
but those of their oAvn way. And this hath 

but it is becoming more and more evident that Penn and 
the Quakers were greatly hampered in their liberal inten- 
tions by ridiculous but effective opposition at home. 



130 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

often been flung at ns, viz. : If you Quakers had 
it in your power none should have a part in 
government but those of your ovv^n WHy." He 
says also that property has a right to representa- 
tion which cannot be denied. He explains very 
fully and very succinctly in a letter to Roger 
Mompesson his purposes in the eifort to estab- 
lish a State: — 

" I went thither to lay the foundation of a free colony 
for all mankind that should go thither, more especially 
those of my own profession; not that I would lessen the 
civil liberties of others because of their persuasion, but 
screen and defend our own from any infringement on that 
account."* 

Thirty years before Penn led his colony to 
America, the far-sighted George Fox had under 
consideration the project of procuring a place 
there to which persecuted Friends might emi- 
grate. He requested Josiah Cole, a minister 
going to see the Indians of the interior, to look 
for a favorable location, where he might pur- 
chase from them a home, not for his Society 
bodily to move to, but for the poor who could 
not stand the shock of persecution. But Cole, 
while favorable to some territory on the Sus- 
quehanna, reported in 1G60 difiiculties in the 

* Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 373. 



Religious Liberty. 131 

way of the purchase.* The matter, however, 
appears to have been kept in view, and in 1674, 
when Lord Berkeley offered for sale one-half of 
New Jersey, it was purchased by two Quakers, 
John Fenwick and Edward Billinge, probably 
with the knowledge and approval of others of 
their persuasion. Billinge, however, soon 
failed, and in order that the opportunity should 
not be lost, assigned to William Penn and two 
others nine-tenths of the new territory. Many 
Quakers moved there, and thus New Jersey be- 
came in a sense a Quaker colony. It grew so 
rapidly in population, that the experiment was 
extended to east New Jersey, and in 1681 Wil- 
liam Penn, and eleven other Friends, purchased 
of the proprietor. Sir George Carteret, the re- 
mainder of the province, organized the govern- 
ment, and invited immigration. Robert Barclay, 
of Urie, the Quaker apologist, was made Gov- 
ernor for life. There were, however, in the 
country such numbers presumably not in sym- 
pathy with Quaker views that the experiment 
was deemed hardly a fair one, and Pennsyl- 
vania, " Adrgin settlement," was at last procured. 
" My God hath given it me in the face of the 

* Bowden's History of Friends in America, Vol. I., p. 389. 



132 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

world/' Penn says in 1682, and evidently tlie 
long-delayed desire was accomplished. 

There was some excnse then for the fact that 
Friends felt a sense of proprietorship in the new 
colony, and wished to hedge themselves around 
with some power and preferment. That they 
took so little is greatly to their credit. They 
asked only what their numbers and character 
would give them. William Penn was anxious 
they should take office in government and give 
their principles a full trial. When complaint 
was made to England that a man was sentenced 
to death by an affirmed rather than a sworn 
jury, he writes to Logan in 1703: "It was not 
to be thought that a colony and constitution of 
government made by and for Quakers would 
leave themselves and their lives and fortunes out 
of so essential a part of the government as juries. 
. . . If the coming of others shall overrule 
us that are the originals and made it a country 
we are unhappy; that it is not to be thought we 
intended no easier nor better terms for ourselves 
in going to America than we left behind us." * 

The Quakers, therefore, meant to retain for 
themselves just what they were willing to grant 

* Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 205. 



ReligiotLS Liberty. 133 

to all other Protestants. But because tliey held 
peculiar views concerning the immorality of 
oaths and of war, the ordinary forms of govern- 
ment had to be seriously changed to conform to 
the new conditions. While therefore they felt 
that they were only asserting for themselves a 
reasonable liberty of conscience, it seemed to 
others that they were giving away the stability 
and permanence of the State. Hence arose the 
strong opposition to Quaker rule among certain 
elements of the population of Pennsylvania, 
which found a still stronger echo in England. 

Part of this was reasonable. Evidently there 
could be no possibility of arrangement between 
those who believed oaths to be indispensable and 
those who believed them to be sinful. One or 
the other must prevail. The Quaker, deter- 
mined to have the share in government to which 
his numbers and character entitled him, w^ould 
neither take oaths nor administer them. He did 
not deny them by statute to others, and an Epis- 
copalian could take them without prejudice if he 
could find an Episcopalian to administer them. 
The subject was a standing bone of contention 
on which there was an honest fundamental dif- 
ference of opinion.^'" 

* Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 65. 



134 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

Still more strongly were pressed the views 
denying the possibility of conducting a govern- 
ment on the basis of anti-martial principles, and 
there was at times a fear, real and honest, that 
Pennsylvania would be given over to the merci- 
less slaughter of the Indians, or lost by conquest 
by the French. 

Other charges were less respectable. James 
Logan intimates that the Episcopal church felt 
a grievance from the fact that it had not the su- 
periority that it had in England and in some 
other colonies, and hence declined to certify to 
the justice of Quaker rule. Others wrote to 
sympathizing friends across the water that the 
Quakers had what we would now call a political 
machine conducted by the church organization. 
This charge has been echoed by writers of recent 
times.* If true it has been most carefully kept 
out of the records. The proceedings of the meet- 
ings never touch legislation, except incidentally 
when they deal with moral questions like oaths 
or slavery. No candidates were ever suggested 



* " History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania," 
by W. R. Shepherd, page 548. See note, page 75 of this 
book. 

" Pennsylvania, Colony and Commonwealth," by Sydney 
George Fisher, page 91. 



Religious Liberty. 135 

or discussed. 'No political conclusions or advice 
ever appear. The most important case in which 
the meetings undertook any oversight of the As- 
semblymen was in 1756 and the following years, 
when they were trying to induce them to resign. 
There is no doubt that considerable esprit de 
corps existed in the Society. When Friends met 
before and after meetings, doubtless the affairs 
of politics were talked over, and no doubt also 
the trend of a sermon or letter of advice on a 
moral or religious subject would influence votes, 
as it does to-day. That the Quakers held to- 
gether so well and controlled the State so long is 
due not to any political organization, or church 
organization worked for political purposes, but 
to the fact that the State expressed the principles 
in which they in common with many German 
sects believed, and that they were loyal to the 
representatives of these principles. The continu- 
ous attacks of their enemies doubtless held them 
together, even when their natural divisions be- 
tween the Proprietary party and the democrats 
would have drawn them apart. 

The attacks upon them are therefore just from 
the standpoint of those who believe oaths and 
war essential to government, and relief from 
them not properly embraced in the liberties to be 



136 A Quaker Experiment in Government, 

granted to sensitive consciences, but hardly on 
the other grounds of complaint. 

The war question will be dealt with in a later 
chapter. The ground of the Quaker objection 
to oaths was partly Biblical, partly resentment 
at the suggestion of untruthfulness involved in 
them; and the sufferings endured in England on 
account of this objection had only fortified their 
beliefs in their position. They did not in- 
tend to have to suffer further in Pennsylvania if 
they could avoid it. One of their prime reasons 
for emigrating was to be able to have their hon- 
est promise, their yea and nay, accepted at its 
face value without the need of any confirmatory 
solemnities. A clause of the first '^ Great Law " 
of 1682 enacted " that all witnesses coming or 
called to testify their knowledge in or to any 
matter or thing in any court, or before any law- 
ful authority within the said Province, shall there 
give in or deliver their evidence or testimony by 
solemnly promising to speak the truth, the whole 
truth and nothing but the truth to the matter or 
thing in question.'' Then follow severe penal- 
ties for falsehood. Had this law been permitted 
to stand for the Commonwealth, oaths would 
have disappeared, the penalties for falsehood 
would have replaced the penalties for perjury, 



Religious Liberty. 137 

justice would have been administered, and loy- 
alty secured, as perfectly by affirmations as by 
oaths, and the people in a little while would 
have adjusted their thoughts to the new order. 
The good man would have preferred to tell the 
truth, and the bad man would have feared the 
punishment for untruth, and as has been amply 
proved since, oaths even if right in theory would 
have become unnecessary in practice. But un- 
fortunately for this solution of the problem, 
Pennsylvania was not an independent State. 

The council in 1685 refused to administer an 
oath even to the king's collector of customs, who 
came armed with English instructions to be 
sworn, telling him " it was against their methods 
to take an oath." 

The matter seemed to have worked smoothly 
on this basis till 1693. Then Penn was deprived 
of his proprietorship, and Fletcher was appointed 
Governor by the Crown. The English laws were 
supposed to be applicable. The act of 1689 per- 
mitted Quakers in England to offer a solemn af- 
firmation " in the presence of Almighty God " 
in place of an oath, but prohibited them from 
giving evidence in criminal cases, from serving 
on juries, or from holding any office. The orig- 
inal laws of Pennsylvania made the official qual- 



138 A Quaker Experiment in Government 

ification a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. 
The English made the additional requirement of 
a belief in the Trinity and the Scriptures. The 
matter for the time was allowed to go by default. 
The Assembly protested against the new imposi- 
tions, but finally accepting the declaration of 
fidelity and orthodoxy, were allowed to continue 
the exercise of their functions without an oath. 

By this time many non-Quakers were in Penn- 
sylvania. Some thought oaths necessary, others 
liked to worry the Quakers and drive them from 
government. To satisfy the former it was 
enacted in the Frame of 1696 that affirmation 
should be permitted to all whose conscience did 
not permit them to swear, and that the penalties 
for false affirmation should be the same as those 
attached to perjury. The English officers in 
Pennsylvania should take the oath according to 
English law. 

For several years there followed a contest with 
the Crown officers and Governor. The Assem- 
bly passed bills the object of which was to pre- 
vent Quakers from being disqualified from office- 
holding by their objections to administering 
oaths, which bills were repealed in England. 
The Church party in the State sent formal re- 
monstrances to England against the liberties 



Religious Liberty. 139 

allowed in taking affirmations. On tlie other 
hand the anti-proprietary Quaker party, under 
the leadership of David Lloyd, sent to England 
a formal protest in 1704 against William Penn 
because he had not secured relief from adminis- 
tering oaths, so that many Quakers were driven 
from government employment. 

This resulted from an order obtained in Eng- 
land in 1703, doubtless for the sake of annoying 
the Quakers,* that judges and other officers 
should be required to administer oaths to all per- 
sons willing to take them. If they refused, Ihe 
proceedings were to be null and void. This 
created great confusion in the Province. In 
some sections there were none but Quakers suit- 
able for justices, and government was suspended. 
Some Quakers appear to have administered the 
oath or allowed it to be administered, and some 
resigned. Penn, who was in England at the 
time, wrote disapproving of both courses. He 
said they should have disobeyed and held their 
places. " I desire you to pluck up that English 
and Christian courage to not suffer yourselves to 
be thus treated and put upon." " Spirit him 
(the new Governor) and creep not. 

* Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. I., page 214 
et seq. 



140 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

Lose what you lose like men and Christians." * 
Here spoke again the old spirit of martyrdom 
which said that his prison should be his grave 
before he would sacrifice a principle. The Penn- 
sylvanians were forgetting how to suffer, and 
were being spoiled by their liberties. 

The Assembly, however, was not inactive. 
Law after law was sent to the Governor, making 
affirmations valid in all courts. Either he did 
not believe with Penn, who appointed him, in 
the invalidity of the Queen's order, or was 
swayed by opposition to the party which domi- 
nated the Assembly. Lie refused his consent. 
Then a joint meeting of Governor, Council and 
Assembly was held.f The Attorney -General 
had advised that no charter could abrogate the 
law of England requiring a jury to be sworn in 
a capital case. l\ot withstanding this it was de- 
cided that Governor and Council had power to 
pass a law, substituting affirmations for oaths, 
because it had been done in the past and the 
Crown had not objected. Moreover, there were 
country places where juries could not be made 
up without Quakers unless they should consist 

* Penn and Logan Correspondence, page 248. 
t Colonial Records, Vol. II., page 233 et seq. 



Religious Liberty. 141 

" wholly of Swedes and other foreigners in whom 
there would be much less security." It was fur- 
ther urged that those willing to take oaths would 
be permitted so to do, if the official was also will- 
ing to administer them. 

To this the Governor objected that in many 
cases where the magistrate was not willing, to 
administer oaths there would be no chance to 
have them taken, and that the Queen's order 
requires them in such cases. The Assembly 
replied to this that it had been well known that 
Quakers who had " first settled and now chiefly 
inhabit this country " would have nothing to do 
with oaths, and moreover that this had been rec- 
ognized by allowing these same judges and mag- 
istrates to be qualified by an affirmation, and 
that it was very unlikely the Queen meant to 
remove all of them from office. 

But, the Governor replied, some Quakers get 
along very well as judges notwithstanding the 
Queen's order. 

On the other hand, said the Assembly, where 
there are conscientious Quaker justices, if some 
one desires evidence to be sworn to before them, 
the whole proceedings become null and void. 
Hence they ask that in such cases the affirmation 
may be legal. 



142 A Quaker' Experiment in Government, 

The Governor finally decided to sign the bill, 
to take effect after a lapse of time sufficient to 
allow the Crown to veto it. 

The Episcopalians sent a protest against the 
bill to London and it was repealed. The Assem- 
bly re-enacted it and sent it to the Governor, 
who now refused to sign it. The Assembly pro- 
tested with great vigor that there was no security 
against murder in a Quaker community, for their 
evidence would not be received. 

The next Assembly, in 1711, conceded some 
points to the Governor, and a fairly satisfactory 
measure was passed, to be vetoed by the Crown 
in 1713. Until vetoed it remained in force. 
After this the process was again and again 
repeated, the Governor objecting each time to 
the passage of the bill. Finally in 1718 an act 
was passed carrying most of the provisions that 
the Assembly had contended for, — the right to 
consider an affirmation as valid as an oath in 
evidence, and as a qualification for office, and 
affixing the same penalties for lying under such 
circumstances as for perjury. This managed to 
escape repeal in London. 

Another question now came up. Some Quak- 
ers objected to the phrase " in the name of Al- 
mighty God," as approximating an oath in effect. 



Eeligious Liberty. 143 

James Logan, in 1706, while admitting the form 
to be objectionable, thought that greater security 
than ordinary was needed in Pennsylvania, 
" where such a rotten and insensible generation 
shelter themselves under the name " * (of 
Friends). (This was in the heat of his contro- 
versy w^ith David Lloyd.) 

The Yearly Meeting in 1710 recognizing the 
difference refused to take sides, but asked for 
charity. " The solemn affirmation is a thing of 
the greatest moment. We exhort all to be very 
careful about it. . . . That Friends be 
charitable one to another about it; they that 
can take it, not to censure or reproach those who 
can not; and those who can not, to use the like 
caution and regard to those who can, till further 
relief can be had for us all.'' 

The whole matter so far as government was 
concerned was finally laid at rest by a law finally 
ratified by the king in 1725, prescribing the 
forms of declaration of fidelity to King George, 
and renunciation of a belief in the power of the 
Pope over the English Crown, of abjuration of 
allegiance to the Stuarts, and of affirmation. The 
latter form omitted any reference to God, and 

* Penn and Logan Correspondence, Vol. II., page 187. 



144 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

as administered simply was, " Dost thou, A. B., 
solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm 

? " To which the answer is to be ^' yea " 

or " yes." 

The Yearly Meeting this year expresses its 
satisfaction at the favorable turn of affairs. It 
calls attention to the fact that the preamble to 
the act says: "It is evident that the said people 
called Quakers have not abused the liberty or 
indulgences allowed to them by law," and urges 
that the further liberties be so used as to justify 
this favorable notice. 

The expense of securing the ratification of the 
act must have been considerable, for we find 
records in several, perhaps all, the meetings * 
advising subscriptions towards the funds raised 
for the purpose. 

Oaths, however, were still administered and 
taken by those who had no scruples, and the tw^o 
systems did not work side by side without fric- 
tion. In 1732 Chester Quarterly Meeting asked 
whether justices in a mixed court are responsible 
for the acts of the body in administering oaths. 



* " Ordered by the Quarterly Meeting (Bucks), that every 
Monthly Meeting shall make a subscription towards the 
charge of gaining the royal assent to the Affirmation Act 
as others have done." 1726. 



Religious Liberty. 145 

and also whether clerks who are Friends can 
caiT}^ out orders to swear witnesses. The Yearly 
Meeting decided negatively in the latter case. In 
the former it determined that Quaker justices 
should have no part in such administration. If, 
however, there are enough other justices to make 
the act legal without their concurrence they may 
retain their places without sacrifice of principle. 

There seemed, however, no way to allow a con- 
scientious Quaker to serve as a judge or other 
official from whom the right to take an oath 
could be claimed. One such place after another 
they resigned, at their own motion or the urgency 
of the meeting. Some retained the office and dis- 
obeyed instructions, and in some places the diffi- 
culty of securing competent officials not Quakers 
disposed the meetings to look leniently on the 
offenders. 

One of the " queries " answered three times a 
year by all the meetings was, " Do you maintain 
a faithful testimony against oaths," and other 
specified Quaker immoralities. Towards the mid- 
dle of the century there were many exceptions 
in the matter of administering oaths.* The cases 

* " That Friends are generally pretty clear with respect 
to military service, defrauding the King of his duties, pay- 
ment of church rates so-called, or being concerned in 



146 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

were taken up one by one by the monthly meet- 
ings, under directions from the Yearly Meet- 
ing.'^" This body also advised its members not 
to vote for Quakers for such offices. Many were 
induced to decline to serve,f and a very general 
refusal to accept judgeships and magistracies re- 
sulted. 

It may seem strange that a belief so unani- 
mously accepted as a cardinal ethical principle, 
should after the lapse of a century have to be 



prize goods, or goods unlawfully imported; though not 
from the administering of oaths." Bucks Q. M., 28, VIII., 
1760. 

* " Recommended that the care of Friends, where oc- 
casion requires it, may be exerted to labor in Christian 
love, to convince such of their error who are deficient in 
respect to our testimony against oaths, and that where 
these endeavors prove unsuccessful, that Friends proceed 
according to our discipline; and it is likewise further de- 
sired that all Friends may be particularly careful that the.v 
be not accessory in promoting or choosing their brethren in 
such offices, which may subject them to the temptation of 
deviating from our Christian testimony in this or any other 
branch thereof." Yearly Meeting, 1762. 

t " I. T. so far condemns his having administered an oath, 
as to declare himself determined not to accept of any office 
for the future Avhich may subject him to the necessity of 
doing it, and that he now sees the practice inconsistent 
both Avith the rules of the Society and the convictions of 
his own mind." 

Middletown M. M., 1762. 



Religious Liberty. 147 

inculcated upon unwilling members as a condi- 
tion to the continuance of fraternal relations. 
Its triumph in Pennsylvania and in a modified 
Avay in England was so secure, that in the minds 
of most of them the sufferings of their ancestors 
w^ere justified by the result. The Society as a 
"whole apparently never wavered in its support. 
No corporate defection ever resulted from it. 
The responsibility of government, the duties 
and privileges of place, brought the Quakers in- 
cidentally to the stand where they must adhere 
to convictions or to office'. The decision went 
forth, as clear as a bell, to hold no office and give 
no vote which would render nugatory the un- 
changing testimony of the fathers, and a certain 
line of offices knew no Quaker incumbents even 
in communities almost unanimously of their per- 
suasion. The few exceptions to this w^ere, after 
a long time of unsuccessful kindly discipline, dis- 
owned by the Society. 

The laws of Pennsylvania, of the States in 
general, and of the United States, are practically 
those to which the agitation of the question 
brought the Pennsylvanians in 1725. They 
amount to freedom to choose between oath 
and affirmation on the part of the taker, 
but no such freedom on the part of the 



148 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

giver. The law for which the Quakers 
pressed so assiduously as the best possible 
under the circumstances allowed all denom- 
inations except their own to hold judicial posi- 
tions. Their ideal was doubtless expressed in 
the original law of 1682, but having been beaten 
out of this by the pressure of opposing interests 
fortified by English authority, they retained 
what they could, and secured to all the future the 
liberty to have their yea counted as yea and 
their nay as nay without the implied invocation 
of a curse for every falsehood, or the irreverent 
use of a sacred name in every formal proceeding 
of the courts. 

This was purchased coincidently with if not 
consequent upon the sacrifice of another princi- 
ple, which most people would judge of equal 
importance with that against oaths. 

The " Great Law " of 1682, passed under the 
impulse of the influence of William Penn and 
his immediate friends, reduced the death penalty 
to cases of treason and murder (practically to the 
one crime of malicious murder only). This stood 
till 1718. There does not appear to have been 
any alarming increase of crime, though numer- 
ous reports were sent to England by enemies of 
the Provincial government, tending to show in- 



Religious Liberty. 149 

security of life and property as a result of too 
great leniency. While we have no evidence that 
Penn changed his mind on the subject of capital 
punishment, he frequently wrote urging a vig- 
orous enforcement of laws against criminals, as 
one means of aiding him in defending the good 
name of the Province. 

In 1715 a prominent citizen, Jonathan Hayes, 
was murdered in Chester County. This was 
while the affirmation question was unsettled, just 
after Governor Gookin had decided that the 
English disqualifying law applied to Pennsyl- 
vania. As judges, and probably witnesses and 
part of the jury, would have to be Quakers, who 
refused to be sworn, the prisoners were released 
on bail for about three years. In the meantime 
Governor Keith came into power, and he and 
his Council considered their case.* It was said 
that immunity had encouraged crime. They 
appealed to England, but before the appeal could 
be heard the sentence was executed. 

The affair made a great excitement, especially 
in England, which was studiously fanned by the 
anti-Quaker party in Pennsylvania. That the 
lives of Englishmen could be taken by an un- 
sworn jury was considered monstrous. 

* Colonial Records, III., page 32. 



150 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

The Assembly became alarmed at the threats 
to exclude Quakers from office by the imposi- 
tion of oaths, and were ready to take advice of 
the Governor. He shrewdly intimated that they 
would secure favor at court by re-adopting the 
criminal laws of England so far as they would 
apply to Pennsylvania. Hence the act of 1718 
" for the advancement of justice and the more 
certain administration thereof," the very act 
which as we have seen made an affirmation as 
good in law as an oath, contained also the author- 
ity to inflict the penalty of death upon a dozen 
crimes, including robbery, burglary, malicious 
maiming, arson, and manslaughter by stabbing, 
to which was afterward added counterfeiting. 

This act was passed by a Quaker Assembly, 
drawn up by a Quaker lawyer, and its acceptance 
by the Crown brought with it a sense of relief 
and satisfaction to a Quaker community. The 
royal approbation was triumphantly announced 
by the Governor, securing on the one hand lib- 
erty to hold office without taking an oath, and on 
the other the great extension of capital punish- 
ment. Penn and his liberal penal code died in 
the same year. This act was in force till after 
the revolution. Not only was the existing law 
adopted as the Governor advised, " as the sum 



Eeligious Liberty. 151 

and result of the experiences of the ages/' but 
persons convicted or attainted were to suffer ^' as 
the laws of England now do or hereafter shall 
direct," If there was any testimony in Quaker- 
ism against capital punishment, which there does 
not appear to have been prior" to the Revolution, 
it was bartered, and the right to make laws was 
surrendered to the English power. That in de- 
fence of a principle fully accepted Eriends could 
brave all dangers had been fully proven, and the 
only explanation of their anomalous position is 
that the taking of life judicially w^as not at that 
time an iniquity in their eyes. The question 
was one of expediency upon which a compromise 
could properly be made. 



152 A Quaker Experiment in Government 
CHAPTER YI. 

THE INDIANS. 

'No phase of early Pennsylvania history needs 
less defense than the Indian policy of the col- 
onists. The " Great Treaty '' at Shackamaxon 
has been immortalized by West on canvas and 
Voltaire in print, and historians have not hesi- 
tated to do it ample justice. The resulting sev- 
enty years of peace and friendship, as contrasted 
with the harassing and exterminating wars on 
the boundaries of nearly all the other colonies, 
attest its practical utility. The date of the treaty 
is more or less uncertain, its place rests on tra- 
dition, and its objects are not positively known.* 
It seems probable that it occurred in June, 1683, 
under the elm tree whose location is now marked 
by a stone, and that it was held for the double 
purpose of making a league of friendship and of 
purchasing lands. 

There can be no doubt of Penn's benevolent 
intentions regarding the Indians. The Quaker 



*" Pennsylvania Magazine," Vol. VI., pages 217 to 238. 
Article by Frederick D. Stone, which is frequently used in 
the succeeding pages. 



The Indians. 153 

doctrine of universal divine light seemed to give 
encouragement to do missionary work among 
them. George Fox again and again in his let- 
ters urges ministers to convey to the Indians 
the messages of Christ's life and death, and 
God's love for them.* The Indians responded 
as if they knew the reality of the indwelling of 
the Great Spirit. On that point their theory 
and that of the Quakers agreed, and this may 
have been the basis of the bond of sympathy 
which existed between them. 

On the " 18th of the Eighth month (October), 
1681," the Proprietor sent by his cousin and 
deputy, William Markham, a letter f to the In- 



* "You must instinct and teach your Indians and negroes 
and all others how that Christ by the grace of God tasted 
death for every man, and gave himself a ransom for all 
men, and is the propitiation not for the sins of Christians 
only but for the sins of the whole world."— G. F., in 1679. 

" And God hath poured out his spirit upon all flesh, 
and so the Indians must receive God's spirit. . . . And so 
let them know that they have a day of salvation, grace 
and favor of God offered unto them; if they will receive it 
it will be their blessing."— G. F., in 1688. 

t " My friends: There is a great God and power tliat 
hath made the world and all things therein, to whom you 
and 1 and all people owe their being and well-being; to 
whom you and T must one day give an account for all 
that we do in the world. 

" This great God hath written his law in our hearts, by 



154 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

dians, simple, brief and kindly, admirably- 
adapted to dispose them favorably to him. He 
had been authorized by his charter " to reduce 
the savage nations by gentle and just manners 
to the love of civil society and Christian reli- 
gion.'' He was evidently greatly interested in 
them, as his long and elaborate descriptions sent 
home on the basis of rather insufficient knowl- 

which we are commanded to live and help and do good to 
one another. Now this great God hath been pleased to 
make me concerned in your part of the world, and the 
King of the countrj^ where I live hath given me a great 
province therein, but I desire to enjoy it with your love 
and consent, that we may always live together as neigh- 
bors and friends; else what would the great God do to us, 
who hath made us not to devour and destroy one another 
but to live soberly and kindly together in the world? Now 
I would have you well observe that I am very sensible 
of the unkindness and injustice that hath been too much 
exercised towards you by the people of these parts of the 
world; who have sought themselves, and to make great 
advantages by you rather than to be examples of goodness 
and patience unto you; which I hear hath been a matter 
of trouble to you, and caused great grudging and animosi- 
ties, sometimes to the shedding of blood, which hath made 
the great God angry. But I am not such a man; as is well 
known in my own country. I have great love and regard 
towards you; and desire to win and gain your love and 
friendship by a kind, just and peaceable life; and the 
people I send are of the same mind and shall in all things 
behave themselves accordingly; and if in anything any 
shall offend you you shall have a full and speedy satisfac- 
tion for the same by an equal number of just men on both 
sides. ..." 



The Indians. 155 

edge testify; and he seems to have had great 
hopes of making acquisitions to Christianity 
among them. 

He sawj however, that Christian sentiment 
alone would not advance the standard or even 
prevent the degradation of Indian morality. He 
knew, at least partly, the character of frontier 
traders, the valuable bargains to be obtained 
from a drunken Indian, and the weakness of 
Indian character in the face of sensual tempta- 
tions. Whatever he could do to lessen these 
evils he stood ready to attempt. He refused an 
advantageous offer when he needed money badly 
lest he should barter authority to irresponsible 
people to the disadvantage of the Indian. " I 
did refuse a great temptation last Second-day, 
which was £6,000 ... to have wholly 
to itself the Indian trade from south to north 
between the Susquehanna and Delaware Elvers. 
. . . But as the Lord gave it to me over 
all and great opposition ... I would not 
abuse His love nor act unworthy of His provi- 
dence, and so defile what came to me clean." * 

There is additional proof of the correctness of 
this statement in a letter of one of the intending 

* Hazard's " Annals of Pennsylvania," page 522, 



156 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

purchasers, James Claypoole : " He (W. P.) 
is offered great things, — £6,000 for a monopoly 
in trade, which he refused. ... I be- 
lieve truly he does aim more at justice and right- 
eousness and spreading of truth than at his own 
particular gain." 

This was in 1681. In the same year he places 
in his " Conditions and Concessions " made with 
his purchasers of land, the stipulations that 
wrong-doers towards the Indians should be 
treated as if the misdeeds were against fellow- 
planters, that Indian criminals should be pro- 
ceeded against before magistrates just as white 
criminals w^ere, and that in cases of dif- 
ference an arbitration committee of twelve, 
six Indians and six whites, should end them. 
He probably over-estimated the capacity and 
willingness of the Indians to adapt them- 
selves to English customs, and the latter meas- 
ure, apparently unworkable, was soon abandoned. 
But as an evidence of his desire for justice it is 
valuable. 

William Penn had paid King Charles £16,000 
for Pennsylvania. He recognized, however, the 
Indian claims to the same territory, and was 
ready to purchase them. Moreover, as he deter- 
mined never to engage in warfare with the na- 



The Indians. 157 

tives, and was trustful in the efficacy of justice 
and reason to settle all disputes, he would 
begin with a friendly bargain with them for the 
land he was to occupy. 

The purchase of lands of the Indians was no 
new thing. It had been frequently but not 
uniformly done in Kew England and I^Tew York. 
The early " Pennsylvania Archives " give sev- 
eral instances of such purchases in ^ew Jersey. 
The Dutch and the Swedes had acquired title 
to lands in the same way in Pennsylvania. In 
fact it had become rather common, and Penn 
probably thought but little of the mere act of 
purchase. 

What seems to have impressed the Indians 
was the fact that Penn insisted on purchase at 
the first and all subsequent agreements as being 
an act of justice, to which both parties were to 
give their assent voluntarily. They also felt 
that the price paid was ample to extinguish their 
claims, and that no advantages were taken by 
plying them with drink or cheating them with 
false maps. The treaties were open and honor- 
able contracts, and not characterized by sharp- 
ness and chicanery. As the Indians reflected on 
them at their leisure they saw nothing to repent 
of, and everything to admire in the conduct of 



158 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

Penn and his friends, and they preserved invio- 
lably the terms to which they had solemnly 
agreed. They instinctively felt the honorable 
intentions and methods of '^ Onas/' and handed 
down from generation to generation the belts 
of wampum which ratified the treaties, and the 
words of kindness and interest they heard from 
his month in the conferences between them. 
These traditions still exist in the West, and a 
band of Quaker Indians in Indian Territory is 
a testimony to their vitality. The Shawnees, 
forced from Pennsylvania, found a temporary 
home in Ohio, still keeping in touch with their 
Quaker friends, and when moved by the Govern- 
ment first to Kansas and then to the Indian Ter- 
ritory, made a request that their agents and 
teachers should be members of the Society 
which they and their ancestors had been able to 
trust.* 

The first land purchased f of the Indians by 

*" American Friend/' Vol. IV., page 79. 

t The consideration paid by William Penn was; 
350 fathoms of wampum. 
20 white blankets. 
20 fathoms of Strand waters (coats). 
60 fathoms of DufRelds (coats). 
20 kettles. 



The Indians. 159 

Penn was on July 15tli, 1682, before his arrival, 
when Markham conducted the negotiations. 
This was for a tract in the northern part of 
Bucks County, between the Delaware River and 
Neshaminy Creek. ^' 

20 guns. 

20 coats. 

40 shirts. 

40 pairs of stockings. 

40 hoes. 

40 axes. 

2 barrels of powder. 

200 bars of lead. 

200 knives. 

200 small glasses. 

12 pairs of shoes. 

40 copper boxes. 

40 tobacco tongs. 

2 small barrels of pipes. 

40 pairs of scissors. 

40 combs. 

24 pounds of red lead. 

100 awls. 

2 handfuls of fish hooks. 

2 handfuls of needles. 

40 pounds of shot. 

10 bundles of beads. 

10 small saws. 

12 drawing knives. 

4 anchors of tobacco. 

2 anchors of rum. 

2 anchors of cider. 

2 anchors of beer. 

300 gilders. 

* ** Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. 1., page 47. 



ll)0 -1 Quid-cr ]i.vpcrinicnt in Gorcrnmcnf. 

Another tract adjoining this was soki •"■ by 
Tanianon to AVilliam Penn, on June 23d, for 
" so nuu'h wampum, so many guns, shoes', stock- 
ings, hx^king ghisses, bhnikets, and other goods 
as the said AVilliam Penn shall please to give 
unto me." At the same treaty other chiefs sold 
out their lands *' to run two days' journey with 
an horse up into the country as the said river 
doth go " for a similar consideration. Other 
treaties of June -5th and July 14th, expressed 
in the same indefinite way, conveyed to Peun 
all southeastern Pennsylvania. 

It was probably the transaction of June '2od, 
U)>o, which constituted the great treaty, f 
Penn writes shortly after, in a letter to the Free 
Society of Traders: 

I have had occasion to be in Council with them upon 
terms for land, and to adjust the terms of trade. . . . 
When the purchase was agreed, great promises passed be- 
tween us of kindness and good neighborhood, and that the 
Indians and English must live in love as long as the sun 
gave light. Which done, another made a speech to the 
Indians in the name of all the Sachamakers or kings; 
first to tell them what was done, next to chai'ge and com- 
mand them to love the Christians, and particularly live in 
peace with me and the people under my government: that 
many governors had been in the river, but that no gov- 

* '* Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. I., page 62, et seq. 

t ■' Pennsylvania Magazine." Vol. VI., page 21S. 



The Indians. 161 

ernor had come to live and stay here before; and having 
now such an one that had treated them -well, they should 
never do him harm or his any wrong. At eveiy sentence of 
which they shouted and said Amen, in their way. 

AVhile many of the details given by some ear- 
lier writers are imaginary, there seems to be no 
doubt from the above that a treaty covering 
sales of land and a compact of perpetual amity, 
answering well the established traditions on the 
subject, was held, and that ^Vest's picture does 
substantially represent a historical fact, and Vol- 
taire's eulogium is deserved. 

Xor has the effect upon the Indian mind been 
in any way exaggerated. Again and again, in 
subsequent negotiations, they refer to the ar- 
rangement with William Penn in terms of the 
greatest respect. 1712, in an interview with the 
Conestoga Indians, Indian Harry said: * 

The Proprietor, Governor Penn, at his first coming 
amongst them, made an agreement with them that they 
should always live as friends and. brothers, and be as one 
body, one heart, one mind, and as one eye and ear; that 
what the one saw the other should see, and what the one 
heard the other should hear, and that there should be 
nothing but love and friendship between them and us for' 
ever. 

In 1715, Sasoonan said: f 

*'' Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 578. 
t " Colonial Record.s," Vol. II., page 628. 



1G2 A Qualcer Experiment in Government. 

To prevent any misunderstanding, tbey now come to 
renew the former bond of friendship that William Penn 
had at his first coming made a clear and open road all the 
way to the Indians, that they desired the same might be 
kept open, and that all obstructions might be removed, oi 
which on their side they will take care. 

The chief of the five nations, in 1727, told the 
Governor: * 

Governor Penn, when he came into this Province, took 
all the Indians by the hand; he embraced them as his 
friends and brethren, and made a firm league of friendship 
with them; he bound it as with a chain that was never to 
be broken; he took none of their lands without paying for 
them. 

Practically the whole of Pennsylvania was 
purchased of the Indians, some of it several times 
over. The Six Nations of New York claimed 
a suzerainty over the Pennsylvania Indians, and 
in this capacity Penn, in 1696, bought of them, 
or of the Governor of New York, acting for 
them, the lands on both sides of the Susquehanna 
throughout the whole Province. f The subject 
Indians, however, not feeling satisfied to be left 
out of the purchase, Penn explained that he was 
only buying the right of the Six Nations, which 
was thereby extinguished, and he laid the parch- 

* " Colonial Eecords," Vol. III., page 288. 
t " Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. I., page 121. 



The Indians. 163 

ment on the ground between the red and white 
men to indicate joint ownership. In 1700, he 
bought over again the same lands " for a parcel 
of English goods/' to the perfect satisfaction of 
the occupants. 

During Penn's lifetime the relations con- 
tinued so good that there was no difficulty in re- 
straining unruly Indians. We find in the early 
minutes of the Council several complaints 
against Indians for stealing the settlers' hogs. 
The kings were sent for and presumably settled 
the matter. 

Penn writes, in 1685, of the Indians: 

If any of them break our laws they submit to be 
punished by them; and to this they have tied themselves 
by an obligation under their hands. 

He was equally desirous to punish white tres- 
passers on Indian rights. The great difficulty 
was to keep settlers off lands not already pur- 
chased. During his lifetime, he bought so far 
in advance of settlement that he managed to 
avoid any sense of injury on the part of the In- 
dians. Later in the history of the Colony the 
problem became a serious one. 

Another cause of complaint was the demoral- 
ization wrought by rum. The Indian was help- 
less in the presence of this ruinous beverage, and 



164 A Quaker Experiment in Government, 

that helplessness was an appeal to Christians to 
keep it from him. 

Penn's cellar at Pennsbury was well stocked 
W'ith liquors of various degrees of strength, 
wdiich he dispensed with generous hospitality to 
his callers, whether Indian or white. He ap- 
pears to have recognized very early the devasta- 
tions wrought by rum among the Indians, and 
we do not find it given as one of the considera- 
tions for lands after the Markham purchase of 
1682. An early law prohibited the sale of rum 
to the Indians, but in 1684 Penn informed his 
Council, that at the request of the chiefs he had 
consented to allow them to buy rum if they 
would take the same punishment for drunken- 
ness as the English. This did not, however, last 
long, and in 1701 a very stringent law against 
selling strong liquors to the Indians was 
enacted.* 

* Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, Vol. II., page 168: 
" Whereas our Proprietary and Governor and the repre- 
sentatives of the freemen of this Province and the terri- 
torie in General Assembly met, are still desirous to induce 
the Indian nations to Ihe love of the Christian religion by 
the gentle, sober and just manners of professed Christians 
(under this government) towards them; and it being too 
obvious that divers i)ersons Avithin this Province have used 
and practiced the selling of rum, brandy and other strong 
liquors in such quantities to the Indians, many of Avhora 



The Indians. 165 

In the meantime the Quaker meetings had 
taken up the matter. 

The Friends who had settled at Burlington in 
advance of Penn's purchase of Pennsylvania 
had very early seen the effects of the sale.^ By 
1685 the Yearly Meeting was convinced on the 

are not able yet to govern themselves in the use thereof 
(as by sad experience is too well known), that they are 
generally apt to drink to great excess, whereby they are 
not only liable to be cheated and reduced to great poverty 
and want, but sometimes intiamed to destroy themselves 
and one another, and terrify, annoy and endanger the 
inhabitants, and forasnmch as several Sachems and 
Sachemucks, kings of the Indian nations, have m their 
treaties with the Proprietary and Governor earnestly de- 
sired that no European should be permitted to carry rum 
to their towns, because of the mischiefs before expressed, 
and since these evil practices plainly tend to the great dis- 
honor of God, scandal of the Christian religion, and hin- 
drance to the embracing thereof, as well as drawling the 
judgment of God upon the country, if not timely pre- 
vented, for the prevention thereof for the future ": 

[Section I. makes an absolute prohibition of all spirits 
by sale, barter, gift or exchange, and affixes a penalty ot 
10 pounds for each offence. 

Section IT. makes the testimony of one professed Chris- 
tian sufficient for conviction. 

Section ITT. forfeits all liquors carried to Indian towns. 

Section IV. prohibits receiving any article of the Indians 
as pawn for strong drink, and forfeits the pawn.] 

* " It was desired that Friends would consider the mat- 
ter as touching the selling of rum unto the Indians [if it] 
be lawful at all for Friends professing Truth to be con- 
cerned in it."— Burlington Monthly Meeting, 1679. 



166 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

subject, and " doth unanimously agree, and give 
as their judgment, that it is not consistent witli 
the honor of Truth for any that make profession 
thereof to sell rum or other strong liquors to, 
the Indians, because they use them not to mod- 
eration, but to excess and drunkenness." Two 
years later they say, if possible still more em- 
phatically, it " is a thing contrary to the mind 
of the Lord, and a great grief and burden to 
His people, and a great reflection and dishonor on 
the Truth," and directed that the minute " be 
entered in every monthly meeting book, and 
every Triend belonging to said meeting subscribe 
the same." Even this did not seem to have 
rooted out the practice among some Friends, so 
in 1719 Monthly Meetings were directed to 
" deal Avith " (i.e., separate from membership if 
not repentant) those who sold directly or indi- 
rectly to the Indians. By this time it was a 
penal as ^vell as a moral offense. 

The Indian chiefs were sensible of the hon- 
esty of these efforts. In a conference held about 
1687, one of them spoke as follows: * 

The strong liquor was first sold us by the Dutch, and 
they are blind; they had no eyes, they did not see it was 
for our hurt. The next people that came among us were 



* Janney's " Life of William Penn/' page 123. 



The Indians. 167 

the Swedes, who continued the sale of the strong Hquors 
to us; they were also blind, they had no eyes, they did 
not see it to be hurtful to us to drink it, although we 
knew it to be hurtful to us; but if people will sell it to 
us, we are so in love with it that we cannot forbear it. 
When we drink it, it makes us mad; we do not know what 
to do; we then abuse one another; we throw each other 
into the fire. Seven score of our people have been killed 
by reason of drinking it, since the time it was first sold to 
us. These people that sell it have no eyes. But now there 
is a people come to live among us that have eyes; they 
see it to be for our hurt; they are willing to deny them- 
selves the profit of it for our good. These people have 
eyes. We are glad such a people are come among us; we 
must put it down by nnitual consent; the cask must be 
sealed up; it must be made fast; it must not leak by day 
or by night, in light or in the dark, and we give you these 
four belts of wampum, which we would have you lay up 
safe and keep by you to be witnesses of this agreement, 
and we would have you tell your children that these foui 
belts of wampum are given you to be witnesses, betwixt 
us and you, of this agreement. 

At the time of the death of Penn the rela- 
tions between the whites and Indians conld not 
well be improved. AVhile there were individual 
outrages on the Indians, and individual stealings 
from the whites, they were punished as com- 
pletely as the circumstances would admit, and 
never produced ill-feeling. The frontier was 
safe from marauders, tomahawks and scalping 
knives w^ere unknown, and traders carried on 
their business with safety. A perfect confidence 
in the fairness of Penn and the Quakers existed 



1G8 A Qual'er Experiment in Government. 

among the Indians, which in time deepened into 
an abiding respect. 

As lands became more in demand for settle- 
ment, difficulties increased. But it was a difi'er- 
ent spirit in the white negotiators, rather than 
inherent perplexities, which drove the red men 
■first to estrangement, then to hostility, then to 
bloody revenge, making them an easy prey to 
French machinations. Much was said at the 
time about the peace policy of the Quakers 
making the Province insecure against French 
and Indian attack. A more profound study 
.would indicate that that insecurity was primarily 
caused by rank injustice to the Indians at the 
hands of tlie sons and successors of William 
Penn. A policy of peace and one of justice com- 
bined may be successful; it is hardly fair, how- 
ever, to provoke attack by iniquity and then 
saddle the inevitable consequences upon the lack 
of preparation for military resistance. Had the 
sons of Penn maintained the confidence and 
friendship of the Indians, an effective buffer 
against all hostile French designs would have 
existed, and Pennsylvania been spared the hor- 
rors of 1755 and succeeding years. This friend- 
ship, notwithstanding the increasing pressure on 
the Indian lands, might have been maintained, 



TJie Indians. 169 

had there been no deceitful measures which left 
the red man quiet but sullen, with a brooding 
sense of wrong, and desire for revenge. Even 
then he seems to have understood that the 
Quaker was his friend and shielded him in his 
frontier raids. It is said that only three mem- 
bers of that sect were killed by the Indians in 
the Pennsylvania troubles, and they had so far 
abandoned their ordinary trustful attitude as to 
carry guns in defense.* 

There were inherent difficulties in preventing 
rum being furnished to the Indians, and in keep- 
ing settlers off their hands. Charles Thomson f 
says, in the case of the rum, that while ample 
promises were held out to them, they were never 
kept. In 1722 the Indians told Governor Keith 
that they " could live contentedly and grow rich 
if it were not for the quantities of rum that is 
suffered to come among tliem contrary to what 
William Penn promised them." Again in 1727 
they complain of traders who cheat them, and 

*Dymond, "Essay on War." 

t "An Enquiry into the Cause of the Alienation of the 
Indians," 1750. The facts which follow are mainly derived 
from this book. C. T. was afterwards secretary of the 
Continental Congress and author of a translation of the 
Bible. 



170 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

give tliem rum and not powder and shot, so that 
the Indians nearly starve. The Governor in 
reply to this said he could not control traders, 
that Indians and v^hites all would cheat, and that 
they were at liberty to break in the heads of all 
rum casks. Such complaints came in contin- 
uously, and we can well understand were hard 
to deal with. In the matter of settlement of 
lands prior to purchase of the Indians, probably 
all was done that was possible. The Scotch-Irish 
and Germans were pressing in at a tremendous 
rate and cared nothing for Indian titles. It 
seemed to them absurd to allow Indians a great 
stretch of fertile land for hunting purposes only. 
Sometimes the settlers w^ere removed, at other 
times the Indians were satisfied by payments, 
but they still felt aggrieved as they saw their 
lands melting away before the ubiquitous wliites. 

These causes, while adding to the general dis- 
content, would not with proper management 
have produced serious disaffection had they not 
been re-enforced by a few cases of glaring injus- 
tice. The first of these was the notorious 
" "Walking Purchase." 

In a treaty in 1728 James Logan said that 
William Penn never allowed lands to be settled 
till purchased of the Indians. Ten years before 



The Indians. 171 

lie had shown to their chiefs deeds covering all 
lands from Duck Creek, in Delaware, to the 
" Forks of the Delaware/' * and extending back 
along the " Lechoy Hills " to the Susquehanna. 
The Indians admitted this and confirmed the 
deeds, but objected to the settlers crowding into 
the fertile lands within the forks occupied by the 
Minisink tribe of the Delaware Indians. Logan 
accordingly forbade any surveying in the ^lin- 
isink country. White settlers, however, were 
not restrained, and the Indians became still more 
uneasy. A tract of 10,000 acres sold by the 
Penns to be taken up anywhere in the unoccu- 
pied lands of the Province, was chosen here and 
opened for settlement. A lottery was estab- 
lished by the Proprietors, the successful tickets 
calling for amounts of land down to 200 acres, 
and many of these were assigned in the Forks, 
without Indian consent. 

In order to secure undisputed possession and 
drive out the Delawares, who it must be remem- 
bered had always been more than friendly, a des- 
picable artifice w^as resorted to, which will 
always disgrace the name of Thomas Penn. A 
deed of 1686 of doubtful authenticity was 

* Between the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers, where Easton 
now stands. 



172 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

produced, confirming to William Penn a plot of 
ground beginning on tlie Delaware Kiver a short 
distance above Trenton, running west to 
Wrightstown, in Bucks County, tlience north- 
west parallel to the Delaware Eiver as far as a 
man could walk in a day and a half, which was 
no doubt intended to extend to the Lehigh Hills, 
thence eastward by an undefined line, left blank 
in the deed, presumably along the hills to the 
Delaware Tviver at Easton. It was one of nu- 
merous purchases of a similar character Avhich in 
the aggregate conveyed to William Penn all 
southeastern Pennsylvania, and had with his 
careful constructions made no trouble. The 
walk, however, had never been taken, and in 
1737 the Proprietors brought out the old agree- 
ment as a means of securing a title to the Mini- 
sink country. 

The route was surveyed, underbrush cleared 
away, horses stationed to convey the walkers 
across the rivers, two athletic young men trained 
for the purpose, and conveyances provided for 
their baggage and provisions. Indians attended 
at the beginning, but after repeatedly calling to 
the men to walk, not run, retired in disgust. Far 
from stopping at the Lehigh Hills, they covered 
about sixty miles and extended the line thirty 



Tlie Indians. 173 

miles beyond the Lehigh River. Then to crown 
the infamy, instead of running the northern line 
by any reasonable course they slanted it to the 
northeast and included. all the Minisink country. 
It was a gross travesty on the original purchase, 
an outrageous fraud on the Indians, which they 
very properly refused to submit to. They re- 
mained in their ancestral homes, and sent notice 
they would resist removal by force. There un- 
fortunately seems to be no doubt of the iniquity 
of the transaction. There is the testimony of at 
least two witnesses to the walk. It appears tj 
have been a common subject of remark. Indif- 
ferent men treated it as sharp practice, and hon- 
est men were ashamed. But the Proprietors had 
a sort of a title to the fertile lands along the 
Delaware. 

The outrage did not stop here. The Proprie- 
tors, probably knowing the temper of the Assem- 
bly, did not ask a military force to eject the 
Delawares. They applied to the Six IN'ations, 
who claimed all the Pennsylvania Indians as 
their subjects. In 1742 a conference was held 
in Philadelphia, where a large number of the 
chiefs of the various tribes were present. Pres- 
ents worth £300 were given to the Six Nations,* 
* " Colonial Records," Vol. IV., page 597, et seq. 



17-4 A Qualrr Experiment in Governnieni. 

and after hospitable entertainment of several 
days after the manner of the times, they were 
bronght into conferenee with their tributary 
chiefs, the Governor, and his Couneih The 
Iroquois sachem, after saying he had judicially 
examined the deeds, pronounced judgment in 
favor of the whites, and turning to the Dela- 
wares, who apparently had nothing to say, he 
addressed them : " Let this belt of wampum 
serve to chastise you; you ought to be taken by 
the hair of the head and shaken severely till you 
recover your senses." Then with the bitterest 
taunts he proceeded: "But how came you to 
sell land at all ? AVe conquered you. We made 
women of you; you know you are women, and 
can no more sell land than women. . . . 
For all these reasons we charge you to remove 
instantly. We don't give you liberty to think 
about it. You are women; take the advice of a 
wise man and remove immediately. . . . 
We assign you two places to go to, Wyoming or 
Shamokin. You may go to either of these places 
and then we shall have you more under our eye 
and shall see how you behave. Don't deliberate, 
but remove away and take this belt of wampum." 
There was nothing for the Delawares to do 
but to obey. They saw that the league between 



The Indians. 175 

the whites and the Six Xations was irresistible. 
They placed them in the same category of ene- 
mies and bided their time. If in the Indian 
sense they had been women — that is, peaceful and 
trustful — they were soon to s^how that the injury 
had made them capable of coping with their 
dreaded Iroquois oppressors, and of sending the 
white frontiersmen fleeing in terror to towns and 
forts. But the cup of their injurious treatment 
was not yet full. 

The Six Nations having completed their con- 
tract in removing the Delawares, demanded a 
reciprocal favor. The lands along the Juniata 
Eiver had never been purchased, and were 
claimed by these Xew York Indians as a part of 
their imperial domain. Moreover they were val- 
uable hunting grounds. But the whites were 
pressing in, and the government of Pennsylvania 
was asked to clear them out. They could not 
well object to the request, and an expedition was 
sent into the country which demanded the 
removal of the settlers and burned their build- 
ings. The whites moved back as soon as the 
authorities were gone, and the old complaints 
were renewed. 

No doubt the French were continually fo- 
menting the disturbances. By artfully promis- 



176 A Qnalicr Experiment in Government. 

ing the recovery of lands and giving presents to 
chiefs, they were welding together most of the 
Indians except three nations of the Iroquois into 
a confederacy against the English. The Penn- 
svlvaninns, sensible of the dancer, becan to make 
counter presents, and liere the Quaker Assembly 
and the Proprietors joined hands. It was a for- 
tunate seasons for such Indians as could take 
advantage of the competition, but in the nature 
of things could not last. 

Finally the Penns concluded at one stroke to 
extinguish all Indian titles to AVestern Penn- 
sylvania. The rest was practically their own. 
The Indian chiefs were collected at Albany, and 
by means which will not bear examination were 
induced to sign the contract. It gave to the Pro- 
prietors all the land south and west of a line 
drawn from Shamokin to Lake Erie and extend- 
ing to the extreme boundaries of the Province. 
The Indians said they were cheated; some chiefs 
were priA'ately bought; most of the Pennsylvania 
tribes were not represented and did not know 
what was going on ; they did not understand the 
compass courses, and did not know the extent of 
the sale; they were told they were only clearing 
themselves of charges of having sold to the 
Erench or the people of Connecticut, who were 



The Indians. 177 

tlicn making claims on the northern part of 
Pennsylvania. How much of this is true can- 
not be certainly known. But when the Pennsyl- 
vania Indians became aware that they had been 
induced, by methods which seemed to them 
fraudulent, to sign away all their hunting 
grounds, the pent-up dissatisfaction of years came 
to a head. The grievances which the Proprie- 
tors and frontiersmen had heaped upon them 
seemed now a part of a settled policy. They felt 
excused from fulfilling the obligations they had 
assumed to William Penn and the Quakers, 
who, they rightfully conjectured, had nothing 
to do with these iniquities; they joined heartily 
with the French in their hostilities, and shot 
down Braddock's army in the summer of 1755 
with a right good will. The terrors of Indian 
warfare to which the other colonies had been 
subjected were now for the first time reproduced 
in Pennsylvania, and the effects of the " Holy 
Experiment " were ended. 

The victory over Braddock tiirned all doubt- 
ful Indians into the ranks of the hostiles. The 
fall of 1755 and spring of 1756 were dire sea- 
sons for the frontiers of Pennsylvania. The 
burning of houses, the shooting down of men, 
the outrages on women and children, the flight 



178 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

to places of safety, the demands for protection 
from government and friendly Indians, — from 
all these things the policy of William Penn had 
shielded the settlers for seventy-three years. 
The very tribes with which he had formed his 
treaties, which were always so warm in their 
friendships for him, which had been the victims 
of the " Walking Purchase," been branded as 
women by the Six Nations, and moved about 
from place to place, — the Delawares and the 
Shawnees, — now proved as fierce as any. All 
that the brilliant author of the History of the 
Conspiracy of Pontiac has said of their general 
peacefulness was disproved. When ill-treated 
they had their bloody revenge, exactly as in New 
England. They showed no lack of Indian spirit. 
Hitherto overcome by the superior numbers and 
organization of the Iroquois, they now, under 
French tutelage and a sense of wrong, turned on 
their oppressors and proved their equality in en- 
durance, in resource and in cruelty. That Penn- 
sylvania was saved by the just and pacific policy 
of the first settlers, and would have suffered just 
as the other colonies did by the reverse, seems as 
probable as any historical conclusion. 

War was declared against these two tribes by 
the Governor and Council in the spring of 1756. 



The Indians. 179 

This was the final act which drove the Quakers 
from the Assembly. Rewards for scalps, one 
hundred and thirty " pieces of eight " for 
a man and fifty for a woman, were oft'ered 
to friendly Indians and guerilla whites, and 
a slightly larger amount for prisoners. But 
the scalps were more easily handled and pris- 
oners were not brought in. The war raged 
primarily in the unpurchased and doubtful 
lands, in the Cumberland and Juniata Valleys, 
and in the " Forks of the Delaware," whither the 
Minisinks had returned to their old home. 

The French were busy in the north, and could 
not do more to aid the Pennsylvania Indians 
than furnish them with supplies. Hence it 
seemed possible to detach the Delawares and 
Shawnees from the hostile alliance. For this 
purpose the ''Friendly Association" was formed. 
This was composed of Quakers, now out of the 
government, but anxious to terminate the un- 
fortunate warfare. They refused to pay war 
taxes, but pledged themselves to contribute in 
the interests of peace " more than the heaviest 
taxes of a war can be expected to require." 

While this Association was objected to by the 
State authorities as an unofiicial and to some ex- 
tent an impertinent body, and charged with 



180 A Quaker Experiment in GovernmenL 

political motives, it succeeded in a remarkable 
way in bringing together the Indians and the 
Government in a succession of treaties, which 
finally resulted in the termination of the war and 
the payment to the Indians of an amount which 
satisfied them for the land taken by the Walking 
Purchase and other dubious processes. Repre- 
sentatives of the Association, either by invita- 
tion of the Indians or of the Governor, were 
invariably present, and their largesses to the 
Indians much smoothed the way to pacific re- 
lations. As Israel Pemberton, a prominent mem- 
ber, said in 1758, after speaking of the miscon- 
struction of their motives by various persons: 

If we can but be instrumental to restore peace to our 
country and retrieve the credit of it with our former kind 
neighbors, but of late bloody enemies, we shall have all 
the reward we desire. ... It was by this [justice] the 
first settlers of the Province obtained their friendship, and 
the name of a Quaker of the same spirit as William Penn 
still is in the highest estimation among their old men, 
. . . and there's a considerable number of us here united 
in a resolution to endeavor by the like conduct to fix the 
same good impression of all of us in the minds of the ris- 
ing generation.* 

Treaties were held at Easton in the summer 
and fall of 1756. Tedyuscung conducted the 
negotiations on behalf of the Six Nations, who 



The Friend/' Vol. XLVI., page 187. 



The Indians. 181 

in the main remained friendly, and the Dela- 
wares. The Lieutenant-Governor and his Coun- 
cil were present. The Friendly Association 
requested to be allowed to send delegates, and 
were at first forbidden, but being doubtful 
either of the perfect wisdom or perfect sincerity 
of the Governor,^ and finding that the Indians 
desired them, sent their deputation, and had im- 
portant influence in securing a favorable con- 
clusion. 

Tedyuscung was very plain. " This very 
ground that is under me (striking it with his 
foot) was my land and inheritance, and is 
taken from me by fraud." f He went over the 
old grounds of complaint, but desired now to live 
in peace. The Council, with apparent intention 
to evade the real question, brought up the old 
decision of 1742, when the Six ]N"ations chastised 
their " women," as evidence of the fairness of 
Proprietors, and proposed that they should, when 
they adjourned to Philadelphia, inquire into the 
matter and do what was right. This was evi- 
dently insincere. The Walking Purchase and 
its consequences were too well known to need 

* " The Friend," Vol. XLVI., page 201. Letter of James 
Pemberton. 
t " Colonial Records," Vol. VII., page 324. 



182 A Qual'er Experiment in Government. 

further investigation, and so the commissioners 
acting for the Assembly seem to have known, 
for thej advised settling the claims immediately. 
This was finally done. The Quakers added their 
present of clothing, and the Indians went off in 
better hnmor than for years. 

This did not entirely stop hostilities on the 
sparse frontier. Scattered tribes still had pri- 
vate revenge or French designs to spur them on. 
But Tedyuscnng, who was now a Christian, used 
his greatest endeavors to bring them one by one 
into friendlv relations with the Eno;lish, and a 
little interval of quiet allowed the disordered 
border to repair itself before another war again 
stirred up the Indians. 

The year 1757 saw peace restored by the ef- 
forts of the heroic ^loravian, Christian Frederic 
Post, sent out by the Friendly Association to the 
Ohio Indians, and by the capture of Fort Du- 
Quesne bv General Forbes. 



Military Matt em. 183 



CHAPTEK VII. 

MILITARY MATTERS. 

Of all Friendlv ideas the most difficult to in- 
corporate practically into government machinery 
was that of peace. The uncompromising views 
which most Quakers held as to the iniquity of all 
war, seemed to those outside the Society Utopian 
if not absurd, and did not command the united 
support of its own membership. That justice 
and courtesy should characterize all dealings 
with other states, that no aggressive war could 
ever be justified, that in almost every case war 
could be honorably avoided, all were willing to 
endorse and practice, but a minority, probably a 
small minority, held that circumstances might 
arise when warlike defense was necessary and 
proper, and that the Sermon on the Mount was 
not to be interpreted any more literally when 
it commanded ^' Resist not evil " than when it 
commanded " Lay not up treasures on earth." 

The general tenor of authoritative Quaker 
teaching, however, admitted no such interpreta- 
tion. It is not foimd in the writings of Fox, 
Barclay, Penington or Penn. Their language 



184 A Qiial^er Experiment in Government. 

is always unequivocal in opposition to all war. 
The Quaker converts among Cromwell's soldiers, 
of whom there were not a few, left the ranks for 
conscience' sake as uniformly and as unhesitat- 
ingly as the Christian converts of the early cen- 
turies abandoned the Eoman armies, with the 
plea, " I am a Christian, and therefore cannot 

fight." 

"E'ot fighting, but suffering," says "William 
Penn * in 1694, " is another testimony peculiar 
to this people. . . . Thus as truth-speaking 
succeeded swearing, so faith and patience suc- 
ceed fighting in the doctrine and practice of this 
people. Xor ought they for this to be obnoxious 
to civil government; since if they cannot fight 
for it neither can thev fi^ht aoainst it, which is 
no mean security to any state, ^or is it reason- 
able that people should be blamed for not doing 
more for others than they can do for them- 
selves." 

We have important testimony to Penn's posi- 
tion in the unsympathetic statement of James 
Logan. f After expressing his own view that all 
government was founded on force, he says: "I 

* " The Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers." 
t " Pennsylvania ^Magazine," Vol. VI., page 404. 



Military Matters. 185 

was therefore the more surprised when I found 
my master on a particular occasion on our voyage 
hither (in 1G99), though coming over to exercise 
the powers of it here in his own person, showed 
his sentiments were otherwise." ^ lie adds that 
" Friends had laid it down as their principle, that 
bearing of arms, even for self-defense, is unlaw- 
ful." 

There seems therefore no doubt that the So- 
ciety had with practical unanimity accepted mili- 
tary non-resistance in its most extreme form. 

ITot content wdth arguing on moral grounds 
against the unrighteousness of war, Penn elabo- 
rated, in 1693, a large scheme " of an European 
Dyet Parliament or Estates " to which disputes 

■* This refers to an incident mentioned in Franklin's Au- 
tobiography. When the vessel was thought to be about to 
be attacked by a hostile boat, Logan prepared to re.si.<t, 
while Penn and the other Friends retired to the cabin. 

It seems strange that Logan should prior to this have 
been ignorant of Fenn's views on defensive warfare, inas- 
much as the treatise quoted above had been several years 
in print, and other writings published long prior were 
equally plain. But Logan was then only 26 years old, and 
though he says he " considered of 't very closely before i 
engaged," his knowledge of Friends was probably limited. 
Indeed, he never felt such sympathy with Friends as to 
attend meetings for business with regularitj'. 

When Penn took his young secretary to task for his 
hostile preparations on shipboard, Logan suggested rather 
unkindly that the objections were not stated till all danger 
was past. 



186 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

should be presented for settlement. All na- 
tions were to be represented by Deputies, and 
the advantages of such a Court and the various 
expedients to make the decisions final and satis- 
factory are pressed with great wealth of sugges- 
tions.* 

William Penn's mind was full of profound 
and comprehensive projects. Three years later 
he published a plan for the union of the Ameri- 
can colonies, of course in dependence upon the 
English Crown. Two representatives were to 
meet in 'New York from each province at stated 
times to arrange for their common interests. 
They would settle all questions about the return 
of criminals, arrange details of commerce, and 
" consider w^ays and means to support the union 
and safety of these provinces against the public 
enemies.'' He was too early with this sugges- 
tion, but it would have preserved them from 
rather bitter controversies if it had been adopted. 

It was easy to hold peace views as an academic 
proposition, supported by the spirit and letter of 
the New Testament; but when the actual prob- 
lems of government arose how was this non- 
resistant principle to be applied to the protection 

* This is published as a tract by the " Old South " Asso- 
ciation of Boston. 



Mihtary Matters. 187 

of society against criminals? This logical diffi- 
culty does not seem to have troubled the early 
Pennsylvanians. So far as appears they drew a 
line between police and military measures, mak- 
ing one effective and barring out the other. 
There was to them no contradiction to call for 
explanation. ^Vith strict logic they might have 
been driven to fhe position of Count Tolstoi, who 
carries his non-resistance so far as to object to all 
government, and all restraint on criminals. Or 
the line might be supposed to be drawn on the 
sacredness of human life, but, as we have seen, 
opposition to capital punishment, per se, never 
arose before the Revolution. Probably if 
pressed for an answer to the question why it was 
right to resist a street mob of subjects with police 
and not to resist an attacking force with soldiers, 
they would have replied that one act was in de- 
fence of life and property under authority of 
civil powers " ordained of God," and involving 
no iniquitous means, while all military measures 
necessarily included the destruction of life and 
property, of innocent as well as of guilty, and 
reversed the established rules of morality in sanc- 
tioning stealing, lying, and killing those who 
were not personally offenders. 

The Quaker Assembly of 1740, in their 



188 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

ethical controversy with Governor Thomas, 
argued thus: ''And yet it is easy to discover the 
difference between killing a soldier fighting (per- 
haps) in obedience to the commands of his sov- 
ereign, and who may possibly think himself in 
the discharge of his duty, and executing a burg- 
lar who broke into our houses, plundered us of 
our goods, and perhaps would have murdered too 
if he could not otherwise have accomplished his 
ends, who must know at the time of the commis- 
sion of the act, it was a violation of laws, human 
and divine, and that he thereby justly rendered 
himself obnoxious to the punishment which en- 
sued." ^ 

Penn did not hesitate to commend force in 
civil affairs when necessary. '' If lenitives would 
not do, coercives should be tried; but though 
men would naturally begin with the former, yet 
wisdom had often sanctioned the latter as reme- 
dies which, however, were never to be adopted 
without regret," he wrote in 1700. f The whole 
machinery of courts and police was intended to 
be effective in resisting crime and criminals. All 
prisons were more or less work-houses, and the 

* " Colonial Records," Vol. IV., page 373. 
t Janney's " Life of Penn," page 441. 



Military Matters. 189 

reformation idea had larger Yogue tlian in some 
places, but there was no hesitation apparent to 
secure by force the ascendency of law. 

The position they took was probably this: We 
will never do an injustice, provoke a war, or at- 
tack an enemy. If attacked we will, therefore, 
always be in the right. AVe cannot do wrong 
even to defend the right, but will trust that hav- 
ing done our duty. Providence will protect us. 
Beyond this we cannot go.* 

Penn had authority by his Charter ^" to 
levy, muster and train all sorts of men of what 
condition or wheresoever born in the said prov- 
ince of Pennsylvania for the time being, and to 
make war and pursue the enemies and robbers 
aforesaid as well by sea as by land, yea even 
without the limits of said province, and by God's 
assistance to vanquish and take them, and being 
taken, to put them to death by the law of war, 
or save them at their pleasure, and to do all and 

* In a pamphlet printed in 1748 entitled, " The Doctrine 
of Christianity as held by the people called Quakers Vin- 
dicated," in answer to Gilbert Tennent's sermon on the 
" Lawfulness of War," substantially this position was 
taken. The pamphlet appeared anonymously, but is 
known to have been written by a Friend of prominence, 
closely connected Avith James Logan, who doubtles^s was 
expressing the recognized views of the Society. A copy 
is in the Philadelphia Library. 



190 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

every act or thing which to the charge and office 
of a Captain-General belongeth, as fully and 
freely as any Captain-General of an aimy hath 
ever had the same." 

These powers were doubtless ample for a 
peaceable Quaker. He could not exercise them 
himself without trampling on the views to which 
he was indelibly committed. The power to use 
them implied the power to transmit them, and 
this is just what Penn did. 

He was in a delicate position. He Avas, as 
feudal lord of the province, liable to be called 
upon to support Britain's causes by force of arms 
against Britain's enemies. This he could not 
personally do, but if the Deputy-Governor had 
no conscience in the matter, Penn would not in- 
terpose to prevent obedience to the commands of 
the Crown. He selected non-Quaker deputies, 
and doubtless this consideration had its effect in 
inducing the choice. H some were inclined to 
criticize him for appointing others to perform 
acts he could not do himself, it must be remem- 
bered that deeds concerning whose culpability 
differences may properly exist, are evil or good 
for an individnal, dependent on the attitude of 
his own conscience. The Priends never asked a 
man to violate conscience, and recognized the 



Military Matters. 191 

differences clue to education, enlightenment and 
mental constitution. If others honestly thought 
war right, it was right for them. Hence the 
actions of the Deputy were not of the character 
wdiich involved evil-doing on his part, even 
though the same actions would have been evil for 
Penn himself. Such was Paul's attitude, and 
such was probably Penn's argument. What, 
however, seems a less defensible position, was 
that taken by him in 1694, as a pledge of the re- 
storation of his government: 

At the Committee of Trade and Plantations, at the 
Colonial Chamber at Whitehall, the 1st and 3d of August, 
1694. . . . 

The Committee being attended by Mr. Penn, who, hav- 
ing declared to their Lordships, that if their Majesties shall 
be graciously pleased to restore him to the Proprietary 
according to the said grants, he intends with all convenient 
speed to repair hither, and take care of the government and 
provide for the safety and security thereof, all that in him 
lyes. And to that end he will carefully transmit to the 
Council and Assembly there all such orders as shall be 
given by their INIajesties in that behalf; and he doubts 
not but they will at all times dutifully comply with and 
yield obedience thereunto and to all such orders and di- 
rections as their Majesties shall from time to time think 
fit to send, for the supplying such quota of men, or the de- 
fraying their part of such charges as their Majesties shall 
think necessary for the safety and preservation of their 
Majesties' dominions in that part of America. 

It is true William Penn only promised "to 
transmit to Council and Assembly '' the orders 



192 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

of the Crown, which was safe enough. But 
when he states " he doubts not " they will com- 
ply, the remark seems disingenuous. For he 
nmst have known that these Quaker bodies 
would do nothing of the kind. Indeed he, him- 
self, about that time, was carefully explaining 
the general unrighteousness of these acts which 
he appears to expect his co-religionists will per- 
form. It looks as if he intended to promise a 
course of action for the future, and then to un- 
load this promise upon a body which would not 
redeem it. 

The first trial of Quaker faith had, however, 
occurred prior to this, in 1G89. The Crown had 
suggested that in order to defend the Colony 
against an attempted attack by the French, a 
militia should be formed. Governor Blackwell 
urged this, and he was supported by Markham 
and the non-Quaker portion of the Council. The 
Friends refused to have anything to do with it. 
They told the Governor that if he desired a 
militia he had power to create one, and they 
would not interfere if it did not offend any con- 
sciences. 

John Simcock said : " I see no danger but from 
bears and wolves. We are well and in peace 
and quiet; let us keep ourselves so. I know not 



Military Matters. 193 

but a peaceable spirit and that will do well. For 
my part I am against it clearly." 

Samuel Carpenter said : " I am not against 
those that will put themselves into defence, but 
it being contrary to the judgment of a great part 
of the people, and my own, too, I cannot advise 
the thing nor express my liking for it. The king 
of England knows the judgment of Quakers in 
this case before Governor Penn and his Patent. 
If we must be forced to it I suppose we shall 
rather choose to suffer than to do it, as we have 
done formerly." 

After much discussion the ^ve Quaker mem- 
bers of Council asked leave to retire for a 
conference. On their return they announced, 
" We would not tie others' hands, but we cannot 
act. We would not take upon us to hinder any, 
and do not think the Governor need call us to- 
gether in this matter. . . . We say nothing 
against it, and regard it as a matter of conscience 
to us. ... I had rather be ruined than violate 
my conscience in this case." * The matter was 
dropped. 

Again in 1693, Governor Fletcher, who was 

* " Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 470. 
Samuel Carpenter, who expressed this sentiment, was 
adjudged the richest man in the Province. 



19-4: A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

also Governor of Xew York, in the interval of 
Penn's deposition, asked the Assembly for 
money to support a war against the French and 
Indians of Canada, which had been raging on 
their frontiers. He knew the difficulties. " If 
there be any among you that scruple the giving 
of money to support war, there are a great many 
other charges in that government for the support 
thereof, as officers' salaries. . . . Your money 
shall be converted into these uses and shall not be 
dipt in blood." ^' Upon the basis of this promise, 
after some delay, the money was voted. 

In May, 1695, a requisition was made on 
Pennsylvania for eighty men with officers for the 
defence of Ncav York. The Council advised call- 
ing together the Assembly, but not until harvest 
was over. The Assembly united with the Council 
in refusing the bald request, reminding the Gov- 
ernor of Fletcher's promise tliat tlie last appro- 
priation should not "be dipt in blood," but should 
be used " to feed the hungry and clothe the 
naked " Indians, and suggested that such of it as 
lind not been used as promised shouhl go 
towards the present emergency. The Council 
finally offered two bills, one to make an appro- 



Colonial Records," Vol. I., page 361. 



Military Matters. 195 

priation, and one to demand a return to Penn's 
Frame of Government, which was held in abey- 
ance since his return to power. As the Gov- 
ernor had to take both or neither he dissolved the 
Assembly. A year later he was willing to make 
the required concession, and urged that the 
money was needed in ^ew York "for food and 
raiment to be given to those nations of Indians 
that have lately suffered extremely by the 
French, which is a fair opportunity for you, that 
for conscience cannot contribute to war, to raise 
money for that occasion, be it under the color of 
support of government or relief of those Indians 
or what else you may call it." The Assembly 
made the necessary vote and the Constitution of 
1696 was obtained in payment. 

The next time the pacific principles of the 
Assembly Avere tried was in 1701, when the Eng- 
lish Government asked for £350 for the pui^pose 
of erecting forts on the frontiers of !N'ew York 
on the plea that they were for the general de- 
fence. Penn, who was then in the Province, 
faitlifully observed his promise " to transmit," 
but declined to give any advice to the Assembly. 
The members were evidently greatly agitated, 
and repeatedly asked copies of his speech, which 
was in fact only the King's letter. After some 



196 A Qual-er Expcnment in Government. 

fencing two reports appeared. One, from the 
Pennsylvania delegates, nrged their poverty, 
owing to taxes and quit-rents, also the lack of 
contributions of other colonies, bnt added plainly, 
" We desire the Proprietor wonld candidly repre- 
sent onr conditions to the King, and assure him 
of onr readiness (according to onr abilities) to ac- 
quiesce Avith and answer his commands so far as 
our religious persuasions sJiall permit^ as be- 
comes loyal and faithful subjects so to do." * 
The other answer came from the Delaware por- 
tion of the Assembly, excusing themselves be- 
cause they had no forts of their own. 

When the Assembly met, a month later, Penn 
again referred to the King's letter, but nothing 
was done, and the matter was not pressed. 

Governor Evans made several attempts to es- 
tablish a militia, but the Assembly refused any 
sanction, and the voluntary organizations were 
failures. 

The military question came up in 1709 in a 
more serious form. An order came from the 
Queen to the various colonies to furnish quotas 
of men at their own expense towards an army to 
invade Canada. Xew York was to supply 800, 
Connecticut 850, Jersey 200, and Pennsylvania 
* " Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 26. 



Military Matters. 197 

150. In tranpinittiiig the order Governor Goo- 
kin, who evidently anticipated difficulty, sug- 
gested that the total charge would be about 
£4,000. He says, " Perhaps it may seem diffi- 
cult to raise such a number of men in a country 
where most of the inhabitants are of such prin- 
ciples as will not allow them the use of arms; but 
if you will raise the sum for the support of gov- 
ernment, I don't doubt getting the number of 
men desired whose principles will allow the use 
of arms." * 

This was too manifest an evasion for the As- 
sembly to adopt. Its first answer was to send in 
a bill of grievances. The opportunity was too 
good to be lost, and David Lloyd, then Speaker, 
made the most of it. 

In the meantime the Quaker members of the 
Council met some of their co-religionists of the 
Assembly " and there debated their opinions 
freely and unanimously to those of the House, 
that notwithstanding their profession and prin- 
ciples would not by any means allow them to 
bear arms, yet it was their duty to support the 
government of their sovereign, the Queen, and to 
contribute out of their estates according to the 
exigencies of her public affairs, and therefore 



Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 740. 



198 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

they might and ought to present the Queen with 
a proper sum of money." ^'' 

The Assembly tlie next day sent an address to 
the Governor which said, " Though we cannot 
for conscience' sake comply with the furnishing 
a supply for such a defence as thou proposest, yet 
in point of gratitude of the Queen for her great 
and many favors to us we have resolved to raise 
a present of £500 which we humbly hope she 
wall be pleased to accept, etc., etc." f 

To this the Governor replied that he would not 
sign the bill. If the Assembly would not hire 
men to fight, there was no scruple which would 
prevent a more liberal subscription to the 
Queen's needs. The Assembly was immovable, 
and asked to be allowed to adjourn, as harvest 
time was approaching. 

The Governor refused consent, when the 
House abruptly terminated the whole matter: 

Eesolved, N.C.D., That this House cannot agree to the 
Governor's proposal, directly or indirectly, for the expe- 
dition to Canada, for the reasons formerly given. 

Hesolved, N.C.D., That the House do continue their reso- 
lution of raising £.500 as a present for the Queen, and do 
intend to prepare a bill for that purpose at their next 
meeting on the 15th of August next, and not before. J 



* '• Colonial Records," Vol. II., page 478. 
t Ibid., 479. t Ibid., 486. 



Military Matters. 199 

The House then adjourned without waiting 
for the Governor's consent. 

The Governor sadly admitted that nothing 
could be done with such an Assembly, and 
gave a rather facetious but truthful account in a 
letter to London, two months later. " The 
Queen having honored me with her commands 
that this Province should furnish out 150 men 
for its expedition against Canada, I called an 
Assembly and demanded £4,000: they being all 
Quakers, after much delay resolved, T^.C., that 
it Avas contrary to their religious principles to 
hire men to kill one another. T told some of 
them the Queen did not hire men to kill one an- 
other, but to destroy her enemies. One of them 
answered the Assembly understood English. 
After I had tried all ways to bring them to 
reason they again resolved, N.C., that they could 
not directly or indirectly raise money for an ex- 
pedition to Canada, but they had voted the 
Queen £500 as a token of their respect, etc., and 
that the money should be put into a safe hand 
till they were satisfied from England it should 
not be employed for the use of war. I told them 
the Queen did not want such a sum, but being a 
pious and good woman perhaps she might give it 
to the clergy sent hither for the propagation of 



200 A Qual-er Experiment in Government. 

the Gospel; one of them answered that was 
worse than the other, on which arose a debate in 
the Assembly whether they shonld give money 
or not, since it might be employed for the nse of 
war, or against their future establishment, and 
after much wise debate it was carried in the 
affinnative by one voice only. Their number is 
26.'^ They are entirely governed b}^ their 
speaker, one David Lloyd." f 

The service performed by " one David Lloyd " 
to the integrity of the Quaker testimony against 
war is strikingly revealed in this letter. The 
Assembly, more emphatically than the official 
records show, took effective measures to maintain 
their position with perfect consistency. 

In 1711 a similar request was made by the 
Government, and in response £2,000 was voted 
for the Queen's use. This money never aided 
any military expedition, but was appropriated by 
a succeeding Governor to his own use, and the 
fact was used as an argum,ent in 1740 against 
similar grants.:): 

" We did not see it," Isaac Morris savs, in 



* Eight from each county and two from Philadelphia. 

t " Historical Collections Relating to the American 
Colonial Church, Pennsylvania/' luige 366, et seq. 

+ " Colonial Records," Vol. IV., page 366, et seq. 



Military Matters. 201 

1711, "to be inconsistent with our principles to 
give the Queen money notwithstanding any use 
she might put it to, that not being our part but 
hers." 

Then followed the thirty-years peace, when no 
calls for military service or money were made. 
Occasionally the Governor would think it neces- 
sary to establish a militia, when the Assembly 
would caution him to make it purely voluntary 
and force no conscience. There were friendly 
relations with the Indians, ^o Europeaii 
troubles necessitated money or troops for Cana- 
dian attack or defense. But, beginning with 
1737, the gradual alienation of the Indian tribes 
made a disturbed frontier ready to be dangerous 
at the first outbreak of war, and new conditions 
prevailed. 

Hitherto tlie relation of the Friends to these 
inevitable military solicitations had been largely 
that of passivity. They would not interfere 
with the movements of those who desired to form 
military companies. If the Governor chose to 
engage in the arming and drilling of voluntary 
militia, he had his commission from the Proprie- 
tors, and they from the Charter of Charles 11. 
It was no matter for the Assembly. The meet- 
ing organizations would endeavor to keep all 



202 A Qual-er Experiment in Government. 

Quakers from any participation in these un- 
Friendly proceedings, and the Quaker Assembly- 
men had their own consciences to answer to, as 
well as their ecclesiastical authorities, if they 
violated pacific principles. 

AVhen it came to voting money in lieu of per- 
sonal service, the legislators had a difficult road 
to follow\ If the government needed aid, it was 
their duty, in common wdth the other colonies, 
to supply it. Even though the need was the di- 
rect result of war, as nearly all national taxes are, 
they Avere ready to assume their share of the 
burden. Caesar must have his dues as well as 
God, and a call for money, except when coupled 
directly with a proposition to use it for military 
attack or defense, was generally responded to, 
after its potency as an agent in procuring a little 
more liberty was exhausted. They would not 
vote money for an expedition to Canada or to 
erect forts, but they would for " the King's use,'' 
using all possible securities to have it appropri- 
ated to something else than war expenses. The 
responsibility of expenditure rested on the King. 
There were legitimate, expenses of government, 
and if these were so inextricably mingled with 
warlike outlay that the Assembly could not sep- 
arate them, they would still support the Govern- 
ment. 



Military Matters. 203 

It is easy to accuse them of inconsistency in 
the proceedings which follow. It was a most 
unpleasant alternative thrust before honest men. 
The responsibility of government was upon them 
as the honorable recipients of the popular votes. 
Great principles, the greatest of all in their 
minds being freedom of conscience, were at 
stake. Each call for troops or supplies they 
fondly hoped would be the last. Their predeces- 
sors' actions had secured the blessings of peace 
and liberty to Pennsylvania for sixty years, and 
if the}' were unreasonably stringent, their Eng- 
lish enemies held over their heads the threat to 
drive them from power by the imposition of an 
oath. Then the persecutions of themselves and 
their friends, which their forefathers had left 
England to avoid, might be meted out to them, 
and the Holy Experiment brought to an end. 

Kor is it necessary to assume that their mo- 
tives were entirely unselfish. They had ruled the 
Province well, and were proficients in govern- 
ment. Their leaders doubtless loved the power 
and influence they legitimately possessed, and 
they did not care to give it away unnecessarily. 
They tried to find a middle ground between shut- 
ting their eyes to all questions of defense on the 
one side, and direct participation in war on the 



204 A Qual'cr Experiment ui Gorernmeut. 

other. This they sought by a refusal for them- 
selves and their friends to do any service person- 
ally, and a further refusal to vote money except 
in a general way for the use of the government. 
If any one conies to the conclusion that during 
the latter part of the period of sixteen years now 
uniler consideration the evasion was rather a 
bald one, it is exactly the conclusion the Quakers 
themselves came to, and they resigned their 
places as a consequence. The iniquities of others 
over Avliom they had no control brought about a 
condition where Quaker principles would not 
work, and they refused to modify them in the 
vain attenq'>t. For a time rather weakly halting, 
when the crucial nature of the question became 
clear, and either place or principle had to be 
sacrificed, their decision was in favor of the sanc- 
tity of principle. 

They were on the popular side of the questions 
of the day, in close association with Benjamin 
Franklin and others. The fact that these allies 
in their other battles were unwilling to stand by 
them on this question made their position espe- 
cially difficult. They, however, always carried 
the popular Assembly against all combinations. 

In 17')0. urged by the Proprietors, the Gov- 
ernor presented to the Assembly the dangers of 



Military Matters. 305 

the defenceless condition of the Province in the 
approaching war with Spain and asked for the 
establishment of a militia. 

This opened the way to an interchange of long 
argumentative papers between Governor and 
Assembly in which the positions of the two par- 
ties were laid down with considerable ability. 
The Assembly said: "As very many of the 
inhabitants of this Province are of the people 
called Quakers, who, thongh they do not as the 
world is now circumstanced condemn the use of 
arms in others, yet are principled against it them- 
selves, and to make any law against their con- 
sciences to bear arms would not only be to violate 
a fundamental in our constitution and be a direct 
breach of our charter of privileges, but would 
also in effect be to commence persecution against 
all that part of the inhal)itants of the Province, 
and should a law be made which should compel 
others to bear arms and exempt that part of the 
inhabitants, as the greater number in this As- 
sembly are of like principles, would be an incon- 
sistency with themselves and partial with respect 
to others, etc.""^" 

To this the Governor replied that no religious 
opinions would protect the country against an 
invading force, and as representatives of the 

* Col. Rec., Vol. rV., p. 366, et seq. 



20G A Qualrr EA-perinient in Government. 

whole people, not of a denomination, they must 
defend the Province from external enemies as 
they did from criminals within, and that there 
was no intention to force any one's conscience. 
Their reliance on Providence withont doing 
their whole dnty was as futile as if they expected 
to reap withont sowing, or protect their vessels 
from the waves withont seamanship. 

The Assembly reminded him that the Prov- 
ince had prospered nnder Quaker management 
f(»r a number of years before he had anything to 
do with it, and would in the future, if his mis- 
representations should not prevail in England, 
even " though some Governors have been as un- 
easy and as willing and ready to find fault and 
suggest dangers as himself." 

The Governor in despair replies: " If your 
principles will not allow you to pass a bill for 
establishing a militia, if they will not allow you 
to secure the navigation of a river by building a 
fort, if they will not allow you to provide arms 
for the defence of the inhabitants, if they will 
not allow you to raise men for his Majesty's 
service for distressing an insolent enemy . . . 
. . is it a calumny to say your principles are in- 
consistent Avith the (^nds of government? " 

After ])aiies of ariiument, which the curious 



Military Matters. 207 

reader will find detailed in " Colonial Records/' 
Vol. IV., the Assembly refused to do anything.* 
Governor Thomas, under royal instructions, 
approached the same subject a year later with 
a similar result. A voluntary company was, 
however, organized and supplied by private sub- 
scriptions. This took away from their masters a 
number of indentured servants, whose time was 
thus lost, and in voting £3,000 for the King's 
use the Assembly made it a condition that such 
servants should be discharged from the militia 
and no more enlisted. The Governor refused to 
accept it, and in wrath wrote a letter to the 

* " I looked over several messages and votes of your 
House of Representatives, and if 1 may be permitted to 
give my opinion of the management of your controversy 
with the Governor, I can scarcely upon the whole forbear 
to take his side. Your cause is undoubtedly good, but I 
am afraid you discover a little more warmth than is quite 
consistent with the moderation we profess. The provoca- 
tions I confess are great, and more than flesh and blood 
can well sustain, but there is a rock which many of you 
know Avhere to seek, but to which he discovers himself to 
be a perfect stranger. The arguments made use of by the 
assembly are strong and cogent, but he justly accuses you 
of too much acrimony. Truth never appears more agree- 
able than when dressed, with mildness and temper, . . . 
And be pleased to remember that a deference is due to a 
magistrate in some sense, though a wicked one, and in 
every set of opposition to his measures, plainness and 
inoffensive simplicity are the principal ones we can man- 
age."— Dr. Fothergill to Israel Pemberton, Second month 
8th, 1742. 



208 A Qualrr F.vpcrimeui in Govern nicnf. 

Board of Trade not intended for home reading-, 
berating the Qnakers for disobedience, stating 
how thev had neglected folknving his advice to 
withdraw themselves from the Assembly, hut 
had rather increased their majority there, lie 
advised that they be refnsed permission to sit 
there in the future. A copy of this letter was 
secured by the Assembly's agent in England, and 
great was their indignation. The disturbances 
culminated in an election riot in Philadelphia in 
17-1:?, in which both sides used force, the Quaker 
party having the best of it and electing Isaac 
Xorris. They re-elected their ticket, with the 
aid of the Germans, and controlled the Assembly 
by an overwhelming majority. To show their 
loyalty they voted a considerable sum for the 
King's use, but refused Governor Thomas any 
salary until he had given up his pretentious sliow 
of power and signed a number of bills to which 
he had objected. After this he worked very har- 
moniously with them till iT-tO. 

In 174-1: he used his authority as Captain- 
General in organizing a voluntary force said by 
Franklin to amount to 10,000 men. On this 
the Assembly took no action. 

The next year the Governor asked them to aid 
Xew England in an attack on Cape Breton, 



Military Mailers. 209 

They tol(J liiiii tliey had no interest in the matter. 
He called them together again in harvest time to 
ask them to join in an expedition against Louis- 
burg. A week later came word that Louisburg 
had surrendered, and the request was transferred 
to a call for aid in garrisoning the place, and in 
supplying provisions and powder. The Assem- 
bly replied that the " peaceable principles pro- 
fessed by divers members of the present Assem- 
bly do not permit them to join in raising of men 
or providing arms and ammunition, yet we have 
ever held it our duty to render tribute to Cae- 
sar." ''^' '1 hey therefore appropriated £4,000 for 
" bread, beef, pork, flour, wheat or other grain." 
The Governor was advised not to accept the 
grant, as provisions were not needed. He replied 
that the " other grain " meant gunpowder, and 
so expended a large portion of the money. f 
There is probably no evidence that the Assembly 
sanctioned this construction, though they never 
so far as appears made any protest. 

Again in 1746 aid was asked of the Assembly 
towards an expedition against Canada. After 
forcing the Governor to yield the point as to how 
the money should be raised, they appropriated 
£5,000 " for the King's use." 

* " Colonial Pvecords," Vol. IV., page 769. 
t This is on the authority of Franklin. 



210 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

This seems to have been the attitude of the 
Quaker Assembly for the ten years to come. 
Again and again did the successive Governors 
call for military appropriations. As often did 
the Quaker Assembly express a willingness to 
comply provided the money was obtained by 
loans to be repaid in a term of years rather than 
by a tax. The governors said their instructions 
prevented their sanction to this proceeding, and 
except when the necessity was urgent refused to 
permit the bill to be enacted into a law. The 
Assembly frequently reminded the Governor 
that they were unable to vote any money for 
warlike purposes, and personally would con- 
tribute nothing in the way of service, but that 
they were loyal subjects of the King and ac- 
knowledged their obligations to aid in his gov- 
ernment. Had they granted regular aid, war or 
no war, their position would have been greatly 
strengthened, but being given '" for the King's 
use '' in direct response to a call for military 
assistance, knowing perfectly how the money 
was to be expended, they cannot be excused from 
the charge of a certain amount of shiftiness. 
The effect, however, was to save their fellow- 
members in the Province from compulsory mili- 
tary service, and from direct war taxes. They 
thus shielded the consciences of sensitive Friends, 



Military Matters. 211 

preserved their charter from Court attack, broke 
down the worst evils of proprietary pretensions, 
and secured large additions of liberty. AVhether 
or not the partial sacrifice of principle, if so it 
was, was too high a price for these advantages, 
was differently decided in those days, and will 
be to-day. An unbending course would but have 
hastened the inevitable crisis. 

That they paid these taxes unwillingly and 
were generally recognized as true to their prin- 
ciples is evidenced by many statements of their 
opponents. In 1748 the Council writes to the 
Governors of Kew York and Massachusetts ask- 
ing for cannon for the voluntary military com- 
panies then forming through Benjamin Frank- 
lin's influence, and says, " As our Assembly con- 
sists for the most part of Quakers principled 
against defence the inhabitants despair of their 
doing anything for our protection." * Again 
later Thomas Penn writes on the same subject: 
" I observe the Assembly broke up without giv- 
ing any assistance, which is what you must have 
expected."f This belief that the Quakers in the 
Assembly would not do anything for the armed 
defence of the Province was general both in 
England and America. 

* " Colonial Eecords,'* Vol. V., page 207. 
t " Colonial Records," Vol. V., page 241. 



212 A Quaker Experiment in Government, 

The Assembly in this attitude was always sup- 
ported by the people. The members Avere re- 
elected, after the most cutting criticisms of the 
Governor and Council, by undiminished major- 
ities, in open elections. The Friends were now 
in a small minority of the population, but during 
all this time they Avere three-fourths of the As- 
sembly. They could afford to refer their critics 
to their constituents with confidence. " What 
motiA^es could Ave possibly have for judging 
amiss? Have Ave not also estates and families in 
the ProAance? . . . Have not divers of 
our fathers and some of our grandfathers been 
of the first settlers?. ... If Ave have com- 
m-itted any mistakes the time draAvs near in 
which our constituents, if they think it neces- 
sary, may amend their choice. And the time 
also draAvs nigh in Avhich your (the Council's) 
mistakes may be amended by a succeeding gov- 
ernor. Permit us to congratulate our country 
on both."* 

In 1754 the Governor, at the instance of the 
Proprietors, AA^ho anticipated the French and In- 
dian troubles on the Avestern frontier, endeav- 
ored to induce the Assembly to pass a bill for 
compulsory military service for those not con- 

* " Colonial Records/' Vol. V., page 342. 



Military Matters. 213 

scientioiis about bearing arms.* He evidently 
did not expect much. " As I am well acquainted 
with their religious scruples I never expected 
they would appropriate money for the purpose 
of war or warlike preparation, but thought they 
might have been brought to make a handsome 
grant for the King's use, and have left the dis- 
position of it to me, as they have done on other 
occasions of like nature,"f he wrote to Governor 
Dinwiddie of Virginia. " But/' a few months 
later he added, " I can see nothing to prevent 
this very fine Province, owing to the absurdity 
of its constitution and the principles of the gov- 
erning part of its inhabitants, from being an easy 
prey to the attempts of the common enemy.":): 

This was after the Assembly had voted 
£10,000, but coupled the grant with conditions 
the Governor would not accept. 

While they were debating the question Brad- 
dock came into the country as commander of 
the combined forces in an expedition against 
Fort DuQuesne. Pressure came down strong 
and heavy on the Quaker Assembly. Their 

* " Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. II., page 189. 
t " Colonial Records," Vol. VI., page 2. 
t Ibid., page 49. 



214 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

own frontier was invaded. Their own In- 
dians, as a result of the wicked and fool- 
ish policy of their executive were in league 
with the invaders. All classes were excited. To 
aid the great expedition Avhich at one stroke W'as 
to break tlie French power and close the troubles 
was felt t(^ be a duty. Franklin dilio-ently 
fanned the warlike spirit, procuring wagons for 
the transfer of army stores, and was extremely 
valuable to the expedition at some cost to him- 
self. 

The Governor wrote to Braddock telling him 
they had a Province of 300,000 people, provis- 
ions enough to supply an army of 100,000, and 
exports enough to keep 500 vessels employed. 
They had no taxc^s, a revenue of £7,000 a year 
and £15,000 in bank, yet would neither estab- 
lish a militia nor vote men money or provisions, 
notwithstanding he had earnestly labored with 
the Assembly, nn<l ho wns nshnined of them. He 
does not explain that they had repeatedly offered 
sums of money, but that he would not accept the 
conditions. As Braddock himself admitted, 
Pennsylvania had supported him quite as liberal- 
ly as Virginia. This was partly done by private 
enterprise and partly by appropriations of the 
Assembly to reward friendly Indians, to open a 
road to Ohio, ami to provision the troops. 



Military Matters. 315 

Braddock was defeated. The Indians were let 
loose on the frontiers. Daily accounts of har- 
rowing scenes came np to the Council and As- 
sembly."" Settlers moved into the towns and 
many districts were depopulated. Strong were 
the expressions of wrath against the Quakers, 
who were held responsible for the defenceless 
state of the Province.! 

This was hardly a just charge, even from the 
standpoint of those who favored military de- 
fence, for the Assembly had signified its willing- 
ness to vote £50,000, an unprecedented amount, 
to be provided by " a tax on all the real and per- 
sonal estates within the Province," which the 
Governor refused to accept. While the matter 
was in abeyance the time for the new election 
of Assemblymen came around, and both parties, 
except the stricter Quakers, who were becoming 
alarmed, put forth their greatest exertions. The 
old Assembly was sustained, the Friends, with 
those closely associated with them, having twen- 
ty-six out of the thirty-six members. 

* Votes of Assembly, Vol. TV., pages 481, 699. 

t The people exclaim against the Quakers, and some are 
scarce restrained from burning the houses of those feAv who 
are in this town (Reading). — Letter of Edmund Biddle, 
" Colonial lAecords," Vol. VI., page 705. 



216 A Quak-cr Experiuicnt in Government. 

The now House went on with the work of the 
old. They adopted a militia hiw for those " will- 
ing and desirous " of joining companies for the 
defence of the Provine(\ This is prefaced by 
the nsnal declaration: " AVhereas this Province 
was settled (and a majority of tlie Assembly 
have ever since been) of the people called (Qua- 
kers, who though they do not as the world is 
now circnnistanced condemn the use of arms in 
others, yet are principled against bearing arms 
themselves/''^ explaining also that they are rep- 
resentatives of the Province and not of a denomi- 
nation, they proceed to lay down rules for the 
organization of the volunteers. After the Pro- 
prietoi*s had given, their £5,000 the Asembly 
also voted £55,000 for the relief of friendly In- 
dians and distressed frontiersmen, '' and other 
purposes,'' without any disguise to the fact that 
much of it was intended for military defence, 
though it was not so stated in the bill. Before 
this was done, while they were still insisting on 
taxing the Penn estates, in answer to the charge 
that they were neglectful of public interests, 
secure in the confidence of their consfituents 
just most liberally given, they say: "In fine 
we have the most sensible concern for the poor 

* " Pennsylvania Archives," Vol. I,, page 516. 



Military Matters. 217 

distressed inhabitants of the fronticTs. We have 
taken every step in our power, con.sistent with 
the just rights of tlj(; freemen of Pennsylvania, 
for their relief, and we have reason to believe 
that in the midst of their distresses they them- 
selves do not wish to go further. Those ivho 
would give up essential liberty to purchase a 
little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty 
nor .s-a/'r^/y/.""^' Their position definitely was, We 
will vote money liberally for defensive purposes, 
but we will take care to secure our rights as free- 
men, and we will not require any one to give 
personal service against his conscience. 

The money was largely spent in erecting and 
garrisoning a chain of forts extending along the 
Kittatinny hills from the Delaware Iiiver to the 
Maryland frontier.! 

The amount of defence the Assembly had pro- 
vided, while probably expressing the will of their 
constituents, did not satisfy the more peace- 
loving of the Friends on the one hand, nor the 
advocates of proprietary interests on the other. 

In Eleventh month, 1755, twenty Friends, in- 
cluding Anthony Morris, Israel and John Pem- 

* Votes of Assembly, Vol. H'., page 501. 

t " Pennsylvania ^lagazine," July, 1896. Dr. Stille on 
" The Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania." 



218 A Qual'er Experiment in Government. 

berton, Anthony Benezet, John Churchman, 
and others, representing the most influential and 
" weighty " members of the Yearly Meeting, ad- 
dressed the Assembly. Tliey say they are very 
willing to contribute to taxes to cultivate friend- 
ship with Indians, to relieve distress, or other 
benevolent purposes, but to expect them to be 
faxed for funds which are placed in the hands of 
committees to be expended for war, is inconsist- 
ent wdth their peaceable testimony, and an in- 
fringement of their religious liberties. Many 
Friends will have to refuse to pay such a tax and 
suffer distraint of goods,^^ and thus " that free 
enjoyment of liberty of conscience for the sake 
of which our forefathers left their native coun- 
try and settled this then a wilderness by degrees 
be violated." " AVe sincerely assure you we have 
no temporal motives for thus addressing you, 
and could we have preserved peace in our own 
minds and Avith each other we should have de- 
clined it, being unwilling to give you any un- 
necessary trouble and deeply sensible of your 
difficulty in discharging the trust committed to 
you irreproachably in these perilous times, which 
hath engaged our fervent desires that the imme- 
diate instruction of supreme wisdom may in- 

* This afterwards happened in numerous cases. 



Military Matters. 219 

fluence your minds, and that being preserved in 
a eteadj attention thereto vou may be enabknj to 
secure peace and tranquillity to y.ourselves and 
those you represent by pursuing measures con- 
sistent with our peaceable principles, and then 
we trust we may continue humbly to ccmiide in 
the protection of that Ahnighty Power whose 
providence has hitherto been as walls and bul- 
warks round about us.""^" 

As the Assembly was composed, this was an 
earnest plea from the responsible Friends to their 
fellow religionists to stand uncompromisingly 
by their principles. It was not very kindly re- 
ceived. The reply indicated that the signers had 
no right to speak for others than themselves, that 
they had not duly considered the customs of the 
past, particularly the grant of £2,000 in 1711, 
and the address '^ is therefore an unadvised and 
indiscreet application to the House at this time." 
Four members of the Assembly dissent from this 
reply, f 

On the other hand we have a strong petition 
sent about the same date to the King, signed by 
numerous inflnential men in Philadelphia, stat- 

* Votes of Assembly, Vol. VT., page o30. 

t " Pennsylvania x\rohives," "v'ol. II., page 487. 



220 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

ing that tlie Province was entirely bare to the 
attack of enemies, " not a single armed man, nor, 
at the public expense, a single fortification to 
shelter the unhappy inhabitants." 
" AVe have no hopes of seeing the grievances re- 
dressed here while a great majority of men whose 
avowed principles are against bearing arms find 
means continually to thrnst themselves into the 
Assembly of this Province." They ask the in- 
terposition of royal authority to insist on proper 
defence being provided.^ 

The attorneys for the petitioners before the 
Board of Trade made the most sweeping and 
unfounded charges, full of errors of fact and 
unconcealed animus, and ending with the recom- 
mendation " that the King be advised to recom- 
mend it to his Parliament that no Quaker be per- 
mitted to sit in any Assembly in Pennsylvania 
or any part of America," and that this result 
should be produced by the imposition of an oath. 

In the minds of the Priends the crisis was 
reached when the Governor and Council (Wil- 
liam Logan, son of James Logan, only dissent- 
ing) in the spring of 1756 declared war against 
the Delaware Indians, the old allies and friends 

* "Pennsylvania Magazine," Vol. X., page 283, et seq. 
Article by Dr. Stille. 



Military Matters. 221 

of William Penn, but now in league with the 
French and killing and plundering on the fron- 
tiers. They were quite sure that peaceful and 
just measures would detach the Indians from 
their alliance, and that war w^as unnecessary. 
The lines were becoming more closely drawn, and 
the middle ground was narrowing, so that it was 
impossible to stand upon it. Either the principle 
of the iniquity of war must be maintained in its 
entirety, or war must be vigorously upheld and 
prosecuted. Some Friends, with Franklin, took 
the latter position, but the great majority closed 
up their ranks around the principle of peace in 
its integrity. In Sixth month, 1756, six of the 
old members of the house, James Pemberton, 
Joshua Morris, William Callender, William 
Peters, Peter Worral and Francis Par^dn, re- 
signed their seats, giving as their reason, " As 
many of our constituents seem of opinion that 
the present situation of public affairs calls upon 
us for services in a military way, which from a 
conviction of judgment after mature delibera- 
tion we cannot comply with, w^e conclude it most 
conducive to the peace of our minds, and the rep- 
utation of our religious profession to persist in 
our resolution of resigning our seats, which we 
now accordingly do, and request these our rea- 



222 A Quaker Experiment in Guvernment. 

sons may be entered on the minutes of the 
house."^" The same fall several other Friends 
declined re-election, and after the next House 
assembled four others, Mahlon Kirkbride, AVil- 
liam Hoyl, Peter Dicks and Nathaniel Pennock, 
also resigned. '' Understanding that the minis- 
try have requested the Quakers, who from the 
first settlement of the Colony have been the ma- 
jority of the Assemblies of this Province, to suf- 
fer their seats during the difficult situation of 
the affairs of the Colonies to be filled by mem- 
bers of other denominations in such manner as 
to perform without any scruples all such laws as 
may be necessary to be enacted for the defence 
of the Province in whateA^er manner they may 
judge best suited to the circumstances of it; and 
notwithstanding we think this has been pretty 
fully complied with at the last election, yet at 
the request of our friends, being willing to take 
off all possible objection, we who have (without 
any solicitation on our part) been returned as 
representatives in this Assembly, request we may 
be excused, and suffered to withdraw ourselves 
and vacate our seats in such manner as may be 
attended with the least trouble and most satis- 
factory to this honorable House."f 

* Votes of Assembly, Vol. IV., page 564. 
t Votes of Assembly, \'ol. IV., page 626, 



Military Matters. 233 

The places of all tliese Friends were filled by 
members of other religious denominations, and 
Quaker control over and responsibility for the 
Pennsylvania Assembly closed with 1756 and 
was never resumed. 

The circumstances which led up to this action 
within the Society of Friends will be detailed in 
the next chapter. 



234 .-1 Qual-er h'.vpcrimenf in Government. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

THE LAST DAYS OF QUAKER CONTROL OF THE 
ASSEMBLY. 

So far as any records show there was only one 
opinion on the subject of war among those au- 
thorized to speak in the first century of the exist- 
ence of the Society of Friends. There was noth- 
ing to call out any vigorous restatement of peace 
doctrine in Philadelphia during the early dec- 
ades of the eighteenth century. Punning 
through the history we find it accepted as an 
established fact not needing formal confirmation 
that Quakerism and peace were indispensably 
and logically associated.* 

* One can only -wonder -svliat troubled the Euilington 
Friends so early as 1682. 

" At our meus Monthly meeting held in Burlington in y« 
House of Robt Young ye 4th of y^ 10th month : 

" In ye behalf of truth & ye Blessed name of ye Lord ye whieh 
we make a profession of thought meet to -write to our friends of 
ye monthly meeting of Upland. & mareus Hook y' they to- 
gether with AVilliam Penn would be pleased to give this meeting 
an Account Concerning ye report of ye prepe ration for War weh. 
Grod in his mercy hath Given us a Testimony a gainst y* we may 
Know what Satistiiction they Can give ye Meeting therein. 
Sam^ Jennings & Robt. Stacy to Draw up a paper to y* meeting 
Con Cearniug it." 



Last Days of Qual-er Control of Assembly. 225 

In the fall of 1739 the Yearly Meeting saw 
the storm coming. A committee was appointed 
to draw up a paper exhorting Friends to continue 
in peace principles " and in no manner to join 
with such as may be for making warlike prepa- 
rations, offensive or defensive, but on all occasions 
to demean themselves in a Christian and peace- 
able manner, thereby to demonstrate to the 
world that our practices, when we are put to the 
trial, correspond with our principles." 

The next year, in view of the complaint made 
to the King by Governor Thomas and his 
friends, they appointed a committee " to state 
the occasions for it to the Friends of the Meeting 
for Sufferings * in London, and request their 
assistance as occasion may require." 

An interesting minute of the Yearly Meeting 
occurs in 1741 : 

A letter from our friend, James TiOgan, directed to 
Robert Jordan and others, the Friends of this meeting, 
being offered, it was delivered to Samuel Beston, Robert 
Jordan, Anthony ]\1 orris, John Bringhurst, Jacob Howell 
and Caleb Raper, who were appointed a committee (as is 
usual in like cases) to peruse the same and report whether 

* The Meeting for Sufferings, so called because it was 
originally formed to investigate and relieve the sufferings 
of Friends in times of persecution, was the executive body 
of the Yearly Meeting. A number of its members were 
influential at court, and on many occasions rendered in- 
valuable service to their Philadelphia brethren. 



226 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

it is fitting to be read here or not; who withdrew for some 
time, and being returned reported, that the subject matter 
of the letter related to the civd and military affairs of the 
government, and in their opinion was unfit to be read in 
this meeting. The meetmg concurring in opinion with the 
committee, therefore, it was not read here, of which the 
clerk is desired to acquaint the Friend who sent the same. 

AVe have a contemporary account of the same 
proceeding in a letter from Richard Peters to 
John Penn. The writer not being a Priend, got 
his information second-hand, and made a few 
errors. Tlie names of the committee are not all 
correct, and the '^ expedient " to stifle the letter 
was but the common practice in all papers ad- 
dressed to the meeting. Of course also no par- 
liamentary motions were made. It is quite likely 
the coat-tail incident is true. If so it shows the 
smallness of the support James Logan had in the 
meeting. 

The Yearly Meeting being held the Aveek before the gen- 
eral election, IVIr. Logan, by his son William, sent them a 
letter wherein he is said to enlarge on the defenceless state 
of the Province, and of the ill consequences that may ensue 
to men of their principles procuring themselves to be re- 
turned to the Assembly, but his good design was eluded 
by the folloAving expedient. Some members moved that 
a committee might be appointed to peruse the letter and to 
report whether ft contained matters proper to be com- 
municated to the meeting at large: accordingly Robert 
Jordan, John Bringhouse, Ebenezer Large, John Dillwin 
and Robert Strethill were appointed to inspect the epistle 
and report Avliether it contained matters Avhich were fit 
for the meeting to take into consideration. On examina- 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Asseuibly. 227 

tion, they reported that the letter contained matters of a 
military and geographical nature, it was by no means 
proper to be read to the general meeting, but some per- 
sons Avho understood those matters might be desired to 
consider and answer it. Robert Strethill singly declared 
that considering the letter came from one who was known 
to have had abundance of experience, was an old member, 
and had a sincere affection for the welfare of the Society, 
he was apprehensive, should this letter be refused a read- 
ing in the meeting, such a procedure would not only dis- 
gust him, but the body of Friends in England, especially 
as it might be supposed to contain several things that 
were intended for the good of the Society at these fickle 
and precarious times. IJut John Bringhouse plucked him 
by the coat and told him with a sharp tone of voice, 
" Sit thee down, Robert, thou art single in the opinion," 
etc.* 

In the letter Logan says lie has always lield 
defensive, but not offensive, war to be lawful. 
But it is not his purpose in now speaking to 
prove this, for he recognizes that the unlawful- 
ness of all w^ar is an avowed and well-understood 
principle of Friends. All government is founded 
on force, and a militia is necessary to secure the 
country from attack. The whole system of 
judges, sheriff's, etc., implies force, and it must 
have drilled and armed backing to make it effect- 
ive. The Friends of Pennsylvania, at a liberal 
estimate, do not include more than one-third of 
the people, and the others have a right to laws 

* " Pennsylvnn'n Mascazine," Vol. VL, page 403. The 
"whole of Jan^ps Logan's letter is printed here. 



•^•■?S A Qualrr E.rperimenf in Goverumeni. 

by which they may properly protect themselves, 
and while Triends profess faith in Providence 
to protect tliem, they are not careful to observe 
Christ's other precepts, but lay up treasures on 
earth, and thus draw upon themselves the attacks 
of enemies. Hitherto Pennsylvania has been an 
inconsiderable colony, but is now a choice and 
easy prey to any enemy. AVar is not unlikely in 
the near future. The people are clamoring for 
defence, and he urges upon the meeting that 
those who for conscience' sake cannot join in the 
movement should decline to allow themselves to 
be used as candidates, and publicly announce 
thev will not serve even if chosen.^ 



* " It is now several months since I received from my 
kind friend J. Logan a copy of his printed paper sent to 
your yearly meeting, at the reading of which I confess 1 
was not a little troubled and surprised, not tliat I believed 
it would be of so much weight as to occasion any con- 
siderable embari-assment among yourselves only as it would 
be a public declaration of difieriug sentiments and a 
basis for your enemies to build a good deal of mischief 
upon as I observe has since happened. , . . The argu- 
ment entirelj" turns on his assertion of all government being 
founded on force. If this is once cleared and it is demon 
strated it is so, yet to prove his argument of any force in 
this case he must make it plain that there is no diiference 
in the degrees of it but that the force exercised in the 
correction of a child is the same as in cutting the throat 
of an enemy."— Dr. Fothergill to Israel Pembertou, Second 
month Sth, 1742. 



Last Bays of Quaker Control of Assembly. 229 

The position taken by James Logan,^ while 
never having official recognition by the Meet- 
ing, was undoubtedly held by a considerable 
number of Friends for the coming forty years. 
They constituted the sort that made up Frank- 
lin's fire company; f that armed themselves 
against the " Paxton Boys" in 1764, that 
supported John Dickinson, Charles Thomson 
and their friends in urging the resistance which 
led to the Revolutionary war, and that finally 
separated and formed the Free Quakers. Many 
of those who did not separate acknowledged the 

* Nevertheless Logan was able to give the Quaker argu- 
ment quite forcibly. 

" I always u^ed the best argument 1 could, and when 1 
pleaded that we were a peaceable people, had wholly re- 
nounced war and the spirit of it, that were willing to 
commit ourselves to the protection of God alone in an 
assurance that the sword could neither be drawn or 
sheathed but by his direction, that the desolations made by 
it are the declarations of his wrath alone; that the Chris- 
tian dispensation is exclusively one of peace on earth and 
good will to men; that those who will not use the sword, 
but by an entire resignation commit themselves to his 
all-powerful Providence shall never need it, but be safe 
under a more sure defence than any worldly arm, — when 
T pleaded this I really spoke my sentiments, but this will 
not answer in English government."— 2nd September, 1703. 

t Franklin doubtless grossly exaggerates the number of 
such Friends. See Sparks's " Life of Franklin," Vol. L, 
page 151. 



230 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

validity of the Quaker testimony, and their own 
errors. The most of them were young men, 
drawn away by the warlike excitements of 
the times and the seductive influences of 
Franklin and his associates. Those wlio had 
the most right to speak for the Meeting, with 
the great majority of the membership, stood 
unflinchingly by the views of Fox and Penn, not 
only through the French and Indian wars but 
in the more trying days of the Kevolution. The 
Yearly Meeting never gave any uncertain sound. 
Logan was out of sympathy with Friends not 
only on the question of war, but he also sup- 
ported lotteries, which the Meeting condemned. 
In a remarkable letter introducing Franklin to 
Thomas Penn, written in 1749, he tells of his 
friend's abilities and judgment, " crowned with 
the utmost modesty." Among his good deeds he 
speaks of the establishment of the Philadelphia 
library, the raising of militia companies in 1747, 
notwithstanding that " one Saner, a Dutch 
printer in Germantown, who publishes a weekly 
paper in his own language, is so much of a 
Quaker that he writes against bearing arms on 
any account," and of setting up two lotteries, 
from the proceeds of which a battery was 
erected. 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 231 

Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting addressed 
the Meeting for Sufferings of London in 1742 
in explanation of the political situation. This 
body contained a large number of members ac- 
tive in public life, and probably better represent- 
ed the political as])irations of the Society than 
the Yearly Meeting, in which the country mem- 
bers from both Pennsylvania and iSevv Jersey 
had the preponderating influence. Eeference is 
made to the statements aent over by Governor 
Thomas's friends, and to the hold Friends had on 
the part of the community not affiliated Avith 
them religiously. Their reasons for retaining by 
proper means the power they had acquired, and 
the overwhelming support they received frmu 
the people, are clearly shown. The letter is a 
complete answer to the charges frequently made 
that by dubious methods for selfish purposes they 
thrust themselves into the Assembly. 

We are truly thankful that it has pleased the Lord to 
dii^pose you to support us in the defence of our Christian 
privileges and civil rights, and though we are not covetous 
of power, yet being entrusted with many valuable i)rivi- 
leges which induced our predecessors to transport them- 
selves into this then wilderness country, and having by the 
Divine blessing on their endeavors cultivated and im- 
proved the same, and we now enjoying the fruits of their 
labours, believe it to be our indispensible duty as far 
as lies in our power to prevent our posterity's being de- 
prived of these advantages, and notwithstanding a few un-' 



232 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

steady persons under our name "were induced by the in- 
terest of some men in power to join with, otliers (.oi wiiom 
some were persons not lawfully qualified or entitled to be 
concerned) in a petition to the King which contains un- 
just and groundless insinuations against us, we can assure 
you that the people ai general, and especially the most 
religious and considerate of those not of our Society are 
very much dissatisfied with the conduct of those men, and 
so averse to any change of our Constitution, that they 
Avould readily join in any measures that may be necessary 
to disappoint the authors of this attempt on our privileges, 
and to shew their disposition to have the administration 
continued, as it has hitherto been, principally in the hands 
of Friends, of which we think a more plain proof need 
not be offered than that in the most remote county of 
this Province at the last Election, all the Representatives 
returned to serve in the Assembly were of our Society; 
and although those in the Opposition to Friends were 
very active, yet of 1150 Freeholders that voted (in which 
number Avere not above 20 Friends) they could prevail 
with scarce 200 to join with them. 

As we are not willing to say anything more at present 
than we conceive absolutely necessary, we refer you to our 
Friend Richard Partridge, who is more particularly in- 
structed in such matters as we suppose may be enquired 
into in the further consideration of these affairs. We shall 
conclude with observing that the situation and constitu- 
tion of this Province is particularly adapted to the disposi- 
tion of Friends and of many others of the religious in- 
habitants in like manner principled against bearing arms, 
and we are willing to depend on that good Providence 
which has hitherto protected us, and Ave trust will ahvays 
preserve us. as we are patiently and humbly resigned to 
the Divine Will, in which disposition our Avorthy ancestors 
surmounted flie many difficulties and exercises they Avere 
long engaged in. We have faith to believe our sincere 
concern to maintain their testimony Avill likewise be 
blessed Avith an happy issue, altho' Ave have Avith sorroAV 
to observe that Ave meet Avith great opposition from the 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 233 

immediate descendants of our first worthy Proprietor, 
whose zealous labours in defence of our principles were 
very eminent in times of the greatest danger. 

London Friendi:; promised aid as desired, and 
in 1742 the Yearly Meeting replies: '^ The kind 
assistance you have been pleased to afi'ord in the 
affair to which your epistle alludes we gratefully 
acknowledge, and make no doubt of the continu- 
ance of the same beneficent disposition toward us 
as occasion may require. And we humbly trust 
that the same Almighty Power which supported 
our worthy ancients in much greater trials and 
hath hitherto favored us will make a way 
through the present difficulties and enable us as 
we abide faithful to maintain our Christian tes- 
timony for the gospel of peace.'' 

In 1744 they strengthened their testimony by 
endorsing a minute adopted in London " against 
persons professing with us carrying of guns fur 
defending their ships, persons and goods, and in 
being concerned in privateering or as owners of 
ships going with letters of Marque "... "Also 
to signify to them (subordinate meetings) the 
unanimous sense of this Meeting that all profess- 
ing with us be cautioned and earnestly admon- 
ished against purchasing of prize goods, knowing 
them to be such, as a practice altogether incon- 
sistent with our principles." 



234 .1 Qual'cr Experiment in Govermnent. 

Little appears on the Meeting records bearing 
on the political situation till 1755, when war was 
already in operation and the pressure on peace 
practices and other Quaker rights and privileges 
Avas becoming stronger. In the spring of this 
year, just before Braddock's defeat, the Quar- 
terly Meeting again addressed their English 
brethren. It will be noticed that this is a de- 
fence, in some respects an unanswerable one, jus- 
tifying the attitude of the Quakers in the Assem- 
bly. Hints are thrown out that they may have 
to give up their places, but the sentiment on this 
subject was evidently n(^t quite ripe. There was 
still hope tliat by judiciously following their 
past course of action their influence in the State 
might be preserved without a compromise of 
principle. Events soon to follow showed the fal- 
lacy of this hope. 

From t^lie Quarterly ^Meeting of Friends held at Philadel- 
phia the fifth day of the fifth month, 1755. 

To our Friends and Brethren of the ^Meeting for Suffer- 
ings in London: 

Dear Friends: 

The foundation of our dependence on and connection 
■with each other being that brotherly love and fellowship 
by which our Lord and Master distinguished His disciples 
from the world, we trust nothing more is necessary from 
us to engage your concern and assistance than to make 



Last Days of Quaker Cottlrol of Assemhly. 235 

you acquainted with tiie difiieulties we are now under and 
the advantages we uiay reasonably expect from your ex- 
erting yourseit lor us at ihia juncture. 

We have on some former occasions been obliged to in- 
form you that tiie iiiclinations and views of our present 
Proprietaries seem to be so essentially changed from those 
which their truly honourable lather had, tliat they for 
some time past have appeared disposed to abridge, and we 
fear to deprive us of many of those liberties and privileges 
which we derive from the original concessions and charter 
on which this Government is founded. This we apprehend 
proceeds very much from their not bearing in mind that 
the first settlers of this l*rovince were men of interest and 
reputation in their native country, and were principally 
induced to remove from thence with the prospect of en- 
joying and securing to their posterity that liberty of con- 
science which they preferred to every temporal considera- 
tion. For the sake of this they adventured with their 
families and substance to undertake a long and dangerous 
voyage and to cultivate this then a wilderness country, 
not without a large share of dithculty and hardship, to the 
diminution of their estates and the imminent danger of 
their lives. That they were not inconsiderate nor weak 
men nor such w horn necessity or misconduct had forced 
from their former homes is very evident not only from 
the knowledge some yet living had of their conduct and 
characters, but from the circumspection, prudence and 
religious consideration, of which they have left valuable 
testimonials in the concessions, laws and first frame of 
government settled and agreed upon between them and 
our worthy Friend ^^'illiam Penn in England. 

We are sensible that a gieat share of merit and esteem 
is due to the memory of that great good man whose be- 
nevolent and disinterested love of mankind has engaged 
the veneration of all wise and good men among us. Yet 
we are likewise desirous it should be frequently remem- 
bered that these advantages and immunities we enjoy were 
purchased at a considerable expense by our forefathers 
who, wisely considering the instability of human affairs 



'JoG .1 Qual-cr l^.vpcrinicnt in Coreninicnf. 

ami the intoxicating effects of increasing wealth and power, 
made the most timely and effectual provisions they could 
then devise to prevent their posterity being deprived ot" 
these advantages. 

On an impartial and caini review of the transactions of 
the government it will appear that in divers instances the 
l*roprietaries and their deputies have extended their pre- 
rogatives and obtained concessions from the people, 
some, with their consent; others, by custom; and thereby 
made a large addition of power and treasure which the 
people did not originally intend to part with. J3ut while 
the fundamentals of our Constitution remained unattacked, 
and there appeared no design to enervate the principles on 
which it was established, we thought it was prudent to 
submit to smaller inconveniences. We now think our cir- 
cumstances are such that we have abundant cause to com- 
plain that the most unwearied endeavours are and have 
some time past been used, and various artihces attempted, 
to wrest from us our most valuable privileges, and the 
conduct and language of those whose duty it is to protect 
us in the enjoyment thereof, fully convince us of the per- 
nicious tendency of their designs. 

In these times the name of liberty is so highly regarded 
that few are in much esteem who do not profess to main- 
tain and defend it. To succeed, therefore, in a scheme to 
deprive us of ours, it was necessary, first to represent us 
as being unworthy of it, and if possible to obtain a belief 
of our having forfeited it by wilful neglect or an obstinate 
refusal to cio what was incumbent on us for the support 
and preservation of the Constitution we profess so much 
value for. The measures which some years past have been 
pui-sued by most of those appointed to preside over us evi- 
dently shew that this point hath been constantly kept in 
view and every opportunity watched to subject us to difh- 
culties, «'>nd thereby furnish some appearance of grounds 
for the charges with which we were to be loaded. 

Those who are conversant in the management of I*ub- 
lick Affairs must know, that where many of various dispo- 
sitions and sentiments are concerned, it is not easy, scarce 



Laat Days of Quaker Cuulrul of An^erubly, 2o7 

possible, to conduct every design and carry it into execu- 
tion in the most unexceptionable way. Some allowance 
must therefore be made for human imperfections, and we 
hope it may with troith and justice be said small aLovv- 
ances are requisite to reconcile the conduct of the people 
of this I'rovince so far as they have been concerned in tne 
Legislature to these Christian principles of fearing Clod, 
honouring the King, and promoting peace and good will 
among men, and we hope the desire of pursuing measures 
consistent with, tliese principles will still animate the sen- 
sible and judicious of our Society, and that they will freely 
resign the right we have in the government, whenever it 
may appear impracticable for us to preserve it and those 
principles. 

We have the more just grounds for this hope, as it 
is well known that many have voluntarily declined acting 
in the executive powers of government, and some in the 
Legislature, as they found themselves incapable of 
preserving the peace and tranquility of their own minds 
and steadily maintaining our Christian testimony in all 
its branches. And were there a sufficient number of men 
of understanding, probity and moderate principles pro- 
posed for our Kepresentatives in whose resolution we could 
confide to preserve our liberties inviolate, we should be 
well satisfied to have the members of our Society relieved 
from the disagreeable contests and controversies to which 
we are now subjected, but while arbitrary and oppressive 
measures are publicly avowed by those who def-:ire to 
rule over us, and our country so heartily and unanimously 
calls upon us to maintain the trust committed to us, we 
cannot after the most deliljerate consideration judge we 
should be faithful to them, to ourselves, or to our pos- 
terity, to desert our stations and relinquish the share we 
have in the legislation. 

The increase of the number of the inhabitants of this 
Province is now very great, and the much greater part 
are not of our Society, and especially in the back counties. 
Yet such is the confidence reposed in us, that after the 
utmost eflForts had been used, and the pulpit and press 



238 A Quaker Exijerunenl in Gavernmenl. 

exercised against us, our former l^epresentatives were at 
our last election chosen throughout tlie i'rovince by the 
greatest majority ever known, witliout accounting the 
freemen who are foreigners, on whose creduHty and ignor- 
ance it has been unjustly asserted that we liave indus- 
triously and artfully imposed. And this was done, not 
only Avithout the solicitation, but in some instances with- 
out the privity or approbation of some that were chosen. 

And it is remarkable that for sixteen years successively, 
more than half of w^hich was a time of war, a sett of men 
conscientiously principled against warlike measures have 
been chosen by those, of whom the majority were not in 
that particular of the same principle; and this we appre- 
hend may be chiefly attributed to the repeated testimonies 
we have constantly given of our sincere and ready dis- 
position to provide for the exigencies of the Government, 
and to demonstrate our gratitude for the favours we enjoy 
under it by cheerfully contributing towards the support 
of it according to our circumstances in such manner as wp 
can do with peace and satisfaction of mind. That this 
has been the constant practice of our assemblies, the 
records of their proceedings will evidently shew. 

We cannot therefore be insensible of the injury done 
us, to have our principles and conduct represented in such 
manner as to render us odious to our neighbors and con- 
temned by our superiors, to whom we think ourselves 
obliged by the strong ties of gratitude and interest. And 
this injustice is greatly aggravated by the consideration of 
the station of those by whom it is committed. Could our 
proprietaries be persuaded to put themselves in our station 
and duly to consider the principal inducements the first 
settlers of the Province had to improve a wilderness, and 
that it is by their industry, and the reputation they and 
their successors obtained for tlieir justice, hospitality and 
benevolence, so great numbers of our countrymen and 
others have been induced to settle among us and advance 
the Proprietaries' Estate to its present value, we have 
no doubt they must assent to the reasonableness of what 
we desire, which is, that they would either exercise the 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assemhhj. 239 

Gov^ernment over us themselves, or according to tlie orig- 
inal contract [liavej themselves fully represented by a 
person of integrity, candour, and a peaceable disposition; 
tor while their Deputy is of a different disposition, and 
continues limited by instructions inconsistent with our 
rights and liberties, Ave cannot expect tlie Government will 
be conducted with prudence or supported with satisfaction. 

We consider that in the present situation of public 
affairs, the exigencies being great, the supplies must be 
proportioned thereto; and we only desire that as we cannot 
be concerned in preparations for war, we may be permitted 
to serve the government by raising money and contribut- 
ing towards the Publick Exegencies by such methods and 
in such manner as past experience has assured us are least 
burthensome to the industrious poor, and most consistent 
with our religious and civil rights and liberties, and which 
our present Proprietaries, when one of them was person- 
ally present, consented to and approved, and to which no 
reasonable or just objection hath ever since been made. 

We apprehend the interest of the Proprietaries and 
people are united, and that they are not Friends to either 
who would separate them, and we heartily wish it were 
in our power to make the Proprietaries truly sensible oi 
this, and to convince them that these are our inclinations 
and desires. We are not ignorant that very contrary sen- 
timents have been artfully insinuated by some of those 
whom they have unhappily reposed confidence in, and 
thus the free intercourse which ought to be maintained 
between them and their people hath been obstructed, and 
occasions ministered for misunderstandings which, with 
more openness and freedom, might easily have been ob- 
viated. 

One point we have therefore in view by lajing our 
case so fully before you, is that, as there are some among 
you whose stations and circumstances will entitle them 
to a free conference with our Proprietaries; We earnestly 
desire your engaging such in this necessary service. The 
attempt must be allowed to be laudable^ and if it suc- 
ceeds, undoubtedly rewardable, the making of peace 



240 A Qualxcr Experiment in Government. 

having a blessing annexed to it by the Author of every 
blessing. 

Were a sense of the satisfaction resulting from the 
hearty concurrence and union of their Friends in promot- 
ing their interest sufficiently impressed on the minds ot 
our Proprietaries, we cannot but think they would re- 
move from their Councils and favours all such who would 
separate them from us, and then whatever difference of 
sentiments might sometimes happen we should hope to find 
them really disposed to maintain the liberties and priv- 
ileges we are justly entitled to, and to promote universal 
peace and good will among us. 

The people of this Province in general, and Friends in 
a more particular manner, have interested themselves 
nearly, and exerted their interest vigorously in the sup- 
port of the rights of the Proprietaries on several occa- 
sions, some of which your meeting has been acquainted 
with, and we doubt not the same affection and respect 
still subsists in the minds of Friends in general, to whom 
it will be extremely pleasing to see the harmony restored 
by which our mutual welfare might be promoted. 



We shall conclude this with the salutation of true love 
and respect, and remain your Friends and Brethren. 

Signed by appointment on behalf of our said Meeting. 

The winter of 1755-6 was one of difference and 
perplexity among Philadelphia Friends. On the 
one side were the men of spiritual power, whose 
voices exercised the prevailing inflnence in the 
meetings for business. On the other were the 
disciples of Logan, who, being manifestly out of 
sympathy with well-established Quaker views, 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assemhhj. 241 

urged the necessity of vigorous defence, caught 
the surrounding Avarlike spirit, and with personal 
service and money aided Franklin and the mili- 
tia. Between tlie two stood the " Quaker gov- 
erning class," who controlled the Assembly, who, 
while admitting and commending the peaceable 
doctrines of Friends, considered their own duty 
accomplished when they kept aloof from per- 
sonal participation and supplied the means by 
which others carried on the war. This third sec- 
tion was the product of long experience in polit- 
ical activity. To these men and their predeces- 
sors was owing the successful administra- 
tion for decades of the best governed colony in 
America. They were slow to admit any weak- 
ness in their position, but it was becoming in- 
creasingly evident that it was untenable. There 
was actual war, and they w^ere, while not per- 
sonally responsible for it, indeed while opposing 
vigorously the policy which had produced it, 
now a component part of the government which 
Avas carrying it on. Would they join their 
brethren in staunch adherence to peace princi- 
ples, and thus give up their places in the vstate 
as John Bright did afterwards when Alexandria 
Avas bombarded? AVould they join Franklin, 
their associate in resisting proprietary poAver, and 



212 A Qnal'er Experiment in Government. 

throw aside their allegiance to the principles of 
William Penn, whom they professed greatly to 
honor ^ 

The question was answered differently by dif- 
ferent ones as the winter and spring passed away. 
Pressure was strong on both sides. The Gov- 
ernor, writing to London, says: "The Quaker 
preachers and others of great weight were em- 
ployed to show in their public sermons, and bj 
going from house to house through the Province, 
the sin of taking up arms, and to persuade the 
people to be easy and adhere to their principles 
and privileges." This was an enemy's view of a 
conservative reaction which was going on within 
the Society, whicli ^^■as tired of compromises, was 
willing to suffer, and could not longer support 
the doubtful expediency of voting measures for 
others to carry out, of which they could not 
themselves approve. 

"VVe have seen how in the early winter the As- 
sembly rebidvcd what they considered the im- 
pertinence of the protest of a number of impor- 
tant members of the Meeting against a war tax. 
The Meeting mildly emphasized the same differ- 
ence in their London epistle of 1750: 

The scene of our aflFairs is in many respects changed 
since we wrote to you, and our late peaceful land involved 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 243 

in the desolations and calamities of war. Had all under 
our profession taithtuUy discharged their duty and main- 
tained our peaceable testimony inviolate we have abun- 
dant sense to believe that divme counsel would have been 
ali'orded in a time of so great difiiculty; by attending to 
which, great part of the present calamities might have 
been obviated. But it hath been manifest that human 
contrivances and policy have been too much depended on, 
and such measures pursued as have ministered cause of 
real sorrow to the faithful; so that we think it necessary 
that the same distinction may be made among you as is 
and ought to be here between the Acts and Kesolutions of 
the Assembly of this Province, tho' the majority of them 
are our Brethren in profession, and our acts as a religious 
Society. We have nevertheless cause to admire and ac- 
knowledge the gracious condescension of infinite goodness 
towards us, by which a large number is preserved in a 
steady dependence on the dispensations of divine Provi- 
dence; and ^\G. trust the faith and confidence of such will 
be supported through every difiiculty which may be per- 
mitted to attend them, and their sincerity appear by freely 
resigning or parting with these temporal advantages and 
privileges we have heretofore enjoyed, if they cannot be 
preserved without violation of that testimony on the faith- 
ful maintaining of which our true peace and unity de- 
pend. 

AVe have an excellent opportunity to view tlie 
internal condition of affairs among tlie Friends 
in the letters of Samuel Fothergill, brother of 
the noted Dr. John Fothergill. He was making 
a religious journey through the American col- 
onies, having already traversed all the southern 
and northern provinces, and reached Philadel- 
phia shortly after Braddock's defeat, where he 



2-14 A Qual-cr Experiment in Govei'tnnenf. 

remainetl nil tlirouizh the followiiio- ^viiiter and 
spring. His letters wm-e private, principally to 
his wife and sister, and are evidently the un- 
stndied impressions made by his personal obser- 
vation and experience."" 

He first attended the Yearly Meeting, which 
was " very large and to great general satisfac- 
tion.'' He did not approve of the doings of the 
Asseinbly. '' As the Assembly for the Province 
have in some respects, I think, acted very incon- 
sistently with the principles they profess, I had 
a concern to have an opportunity with such of 
them as are members of onr Society, being 
twenty-eight out of thirty-six; and they gave 
some Friends and me an opportunity this morn- 
ing to relieve our spirits to them.'' 

Pie is first inclined to think they have hope- 
lessly compromised their principles. " All the 
hardships of last winter, though very great, were 
nothing in comparison with the anguish of spirit 
I feel for this backsliding pei^ple, though there 
are, and even in the Assembly, a number who 
remember with humble trust and contidence the 
everlasting Protector of His people." 



* " IVfemoirs of Samuel Fothergill." By George Crosfield, 
page 214, et seq. 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 245 

" Our epistle from Philadelphia to the 
monthly meetings meets with a different recep- 
tion as the people differ; the libertines, worldly- 
minded and opposers of the reformation in them- 
selves, cavil and rage, but the seed is relieved 
and the honest-hearted strengthened." 

Matters, however, improved durmg the win- 
ter. He writes in the spring: "The love of 
power, the ambition of superiority, the desire of 
exemption from suffering, strongly operate with 
many under our name to continue in stations 
wherein they sacrifice their testimony and are as 
salt which hath lost its savor. But as it now ap- 
pears that we can scarcely keep the truth and its 
testimony inviolate and retain those places, many 
stand up on the Lord's side and declare they have 
none on earth in comparison with the God of 
their fathers." 

He does not have any respect for the line of 
forts. " Many thousand pounds of the Prov- 
ince's money have by the Assembly's committee 
been laid out in erecting forts upon the frontiers 
and placing men in them ; a step as prudent, and 
likely to be attended with as much success, as an 
attempt to hedge out birds or the deer. . . . 
In contempt and mockery of the attempt eleven 
people being destro^^ed a few days ago within a 



246 .4 Qual-er E.rpcrimnif in G(U'ernmcnt. 

mile of one of their fort^." He al.-^o objects to 
the lack of respect in the tone of the Assembly's 
addresses to the Governor, " It is altogether im- 
puted to B. Franklin, their principal penman, 
who I have sometimes thought intended to ren- 
der the Assembly contemptible, and subject our 
religious Society to the imputation of want of 
respect for authority, as a factious sort of people; 
and I fear he has gained his point." 

It is the injustice to the Indians to which the 
trouble is to be attributed. '' The five Indian 
nations who conquered the Dela wares sold some 
part of the ancient inheritance of these last to 
the Proprietors, some few years since, alleging 
the right of sale to be in them as conquerors, and 
the goods were divided amongst the five nations 
principally, to the discontent of the Delawares, 
who still judge themselves justly entitled to some 
equivalent for their land, which either the inat- 
tention of the Proprietors or tlieir want of in- 
formation induced tliem to disregard; and it is 
pretty much in this land, and land fraudulently 
obtained, that the barbarities are committed." 

'*' The consternation in which this Province 
hath been thrown by the Indians is not dimin- 
ished. The Assembly have sold their testimony 
as Friends to the people's fears, and not gone far 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 247 

enough to satisfy them. The Indians have com- 
plained without redress, and are now up in arms 

and have destroyed many people 

The ancient methods of dealing- with the Indians 
upon principles of equity and justice seem neg- 
lected, the spirit of war and destruction endeav- 
oring to break loose, in order to reduce this pleas- 
ant populous Province to its ancient wilderness 
condition." 

"4th month 9th, 1756. — Had some labor 
amongst Friends to endeavor to prevent a cruel 
Indian war; and had also a conference with the 
present and late Governor along with J. P. 
(John Pemberton) upon the present position of 
affairs; they received us with candor, but our 
labor was ineffectual, for on the 10th, a day to 
be remembered through many generations with 
sorrow, the Governor agreed to proclaim war 
against the Delawares, and delivered the hatchet 
into the hands of some of the Indians." 

As the address of twenty Friends to the As- 
sembly had predicted, a large number refused to 
pay the war tax of 1755. Others were quite will 
ing to do so. The differences were evidently 
acute. " The Assembly here have passed a law 
imposing a tax upon the inhabitants of this Prov- 
ince; and as a great part of the money is to be 



248 A Qual'er Experiment in Government. 

laid out for military purposes many solid Friends 
can not pay it, which is likely to bring such a 
breach and division as never happened among us 
since we were a people." 

The Friends who refused to pay the tax 
thought it peculiarly hard that they were forced 
to suffer heavy losses through the action of their 
fellow-members of the Assembly. These Assem- 
blymen and their friends pointed out on the 
other hand that these taxes had been paid in the 
past, and that it was ultra-conscientiousness 
which prevented the willing support of the gov- 
ernment in this hour of peril. The question was 
a difficult one. Quakers had hitherto refused a 
direct war tax and paid everything else, even 
when war expenditures were mingled with 
others. The stricter Friends considered that 
this tax, though disguised, was of the objection- 
able sort, while others did not so place it. The 
difference accentuated itself by condemnatory 
criticisms, and in 1757 the A^ early fleeting 
appointed a committee of thirty, who reported 
that it was a matter for individual consciences to 
determine, and not for the ^leeting's decisiou. 

" We are unanimously of the judgment that it 
is not proper to enter into a public discussion of 
the matter; and we are one in judgment that it 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 249 

is liiglily necessary for the Yearly Meeting to 
recommend that Friends everywhere endeavor 
to have their minds covered with frequent char- 
ity towards one another." The Meeting unani- 
mously adopted this report. This appeal seems 
to have been successful, and we hear no more of 
the difference. ■^" 

The situation is explained in two letters from 
James Pemberton to Samuel Fothergill, one 
dated 11th mo., 1750, the other 1st mo., 1757: 

Our situation is indeed such as affords cause of mel- 
ancholy reflection that the first commencement of perse- 
cution in this Province should arise from our brethren in 
profession, and that such darkness should prevail as that 
they should be instruments of oppressing tender con- 
sciences which hath been the case. The tax in this county 
being pretty generally collected and many in this city 
particularly suffered by distraint of their goods and some 
being near cast into jail. 

The number of us who could not be free to pay the 
tax is small compared with those who not only comply 
with it but censure those who do not. 

Notwithstanding the feeling against the Pro- 
prietors, the Yearly Meeting insists on their hav- 
ing their just dues promptly. '' It should be 
earnestly recommended to the several Quarterly 
and Monthly Meetings to use their utmost en- 



* Further information on this matter will be found in 
John Woolman's Journal, Whittier's edition, pages 124, 
et seq. 



250 .1 Qualicr Experimeiif in Government. 

deavors to excite the several members of their 
respective meetings to be punctual in the pay- 
ment of quit-rents and other monies due from 
them to the Proprietors, to remove any just 
cause of reflection on us in this particular." 

The deliberations and differences among the 
Friends of Pennsylvania were helped to an end- 
ing by the action of their London brethren. 
They had been at all times willing to respond to 
the request of the Colonial Quakers for advice 
and assistance. The petition of the Philadel- 
phians adverse to the Assembly's course of ac- 
tion, and the accounts true and false as to the 
defenceless condition of the Province which had 
been sent to London, had made many enemies, 
and measures were on foot to drive all Quakers 
from Government places. The London Friends 
got on the track of these movements and under- 
took to do what they could to neutralize them. 
The whole matter is explained in the report of 
Dr. Fothergiil to the Ifeeting for Suft'erings. 

At a meeting for Sufferings the 9tli of 4th month, 1756. 

John Fothergiil, from the Committee on the Pensilvania 
affair, brought in a lepoit, which was read, and is as fol- 
lows: 

To the Meeting for Sufferings: 

The Committee appointed to consider the present state 
of affairs in Pensilvania, Submit the following account of 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 251 

their proceedings therein to the Meeting, and request tlieir 
farther direction in the affair. 

The Committee liaving received undoubted Informa- 
mation that measures were concerting by some persons of 
Influence liere^ which would very much affect our friends 
in Pensilvania, & occasion some material alterations in 
the present frame of Government in that Province, de- 
puted several Friends to wait upon a Nobleman in high 
station, in order to request his advice & favourable Inter- 
position. 

He acquainted Friends who waited upon him that he 
discovered a general & strong prepossession excited against 
us as a people both here and in America, chiefly he be- 
lieved from the repeated accounts transmitted hither of 
the distressing situation of affairs in that Province, which 
were too readily credited by all ranks and ascribed to 
the principles and Conduct of the Society. That even 
those in considerable Stations, who had been our firm 
Friends on various occasions now seemed to be so far 
influenced as to be either wavering in their opinion, or 
disposed to join in the popular cry against us; and that 
from the present appearance of things such seemed to be 
the temper of many that no measures however disadvan- 
tageous to us, could be offered to either house, which would 
not at least meet with a Strenuous support. 

Nevertheless that he and a few more from a thorough 
knowledge & approbation of our principles and Conduct 
in divers particulars; and from a consideration of the in- 
justice it would be, to exclude those from any share in the 
Legislature of a Province, who had so highly contributed 
to it's present value & reputation, were desirous that we 
ourselves if possible, should apply a remedy, rather than 
leave it to be done by the public, who from the disposition 
they were in, seemed inclined to the severest, a Clause for 
totally excluding our Friends in Pensilvania & other parts 
of America from having seats in any Provincial Assembly 
by imposing an Oath, having actually been part of a bill 
now before Parliament, That as the majority of the pres- 
ent Assembly were of our Profession who from their 



252 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

known principles could not contribute to the defence of 
the Country now grievously harrased by the Indians under 
French Influence in a manner that most people here and 
even many in Pensilvania thought necessary it seemed 
but common justice in our Friends to decline accepting a 
trust which under the present Circumstances they could 
not discharge, and therefore advised that we should use 
our utmost endeavours to prevail upon them neither to 
offer themselves as candidates nor to accept of seats in the 
Assembly during the present commotions in America. 

That if we could give any reasonable hopes this advice 
would be complyed with, he for one would endeavour to 
prevent any violent measures from being taken at the 
present. 

But that as much depended on this complyance lie 
earnestly recommended we should not trust to Letters 
only, or the most pressing advices, but that even some 
proper persons should be deputed to go over on this occa- 
sion. 

For should any disaster befall the Province and our 
Friends continue to fill the Assembly, it would redound 
to the prejudice of the Society in general, and be the 
means perhaps of subverting a constitution under wiiich 
the province had so happily flourished. 

He farther recommended it to us, to wait upon some 
other principal persons in high stations, and endeavour 
to prevail upon them to join in suspending the resolutions 
which might have been formed either for a present or a 
total exclusion. 

The Friends acknowledged their grateful sense of his 
regard & strenuous interposition on their behalf, and on 
making this report to the Committee it was agreed in pur- 
suance of this advice to wait upon some other persons in 
high stations on the same account. 

Jn conversation with those to whom the Committee 
applied they found it was the general opinion that either 
an immediate dissolution of the present assembly, or a 
Test to incapacitate any of our profession from setting 
therein, or both were absolutely necessary to preserve the 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 253 

Province from inevitable ruin: and We al^o found that 
bills Avere already prepared for these purposes. 

The friends appointed among other tumgs represented 
that we were satisfied many of our Friends who now sat 
in that assembly, accepted the seats therein with some re- 
luctance & would cheerfully resign them whenever the 
country thought other representatives could more effec- 
tually contribute to its benefit & security, for which reason 
we apprehended it would be no difficult matter to induce 
most if not all of our Society to resign their Stations es- 
pecially as this might be the means of preventing so dan- 
gerous an innovation upon the present Frame of Govern- 
ment of that Province. 

Upon the whole, we have reason to expect that thro' 
the kind interi^osition of Providence and the favourable 
disposition of those in power, nothing will be attempted 
in Parliament this Sessions. 

But it is fully expected that our Friends will not suffer 
themselves to be chosen into assembly during the present 
disturbances in America. 

And as the committee have engaged that our utmost 
endeavours shall be used with our Friends in America, to 
fulfil these expectations, — We are of opinion that an Epis- 
tle should be forthwith drawn up and sent to our Friends 
in Pensilvania, fully to inform them of the sentiments of 
the Publick concerning them of the danger they have !^o 
narrowly escaped, & the means pointed out for their avoid- 
ing it for the future. 

And that in pursuance of the advice given us, two or 
more proper Friends should be engaged to go over to Pen- 
silvania, in order the more fully to explain the present 
state of affairs, and what is expected from Friends in those 
parts. 

And we are likewise of opinion that proper acknowledge- 
ments should be made in behalf of the Society to those 
persons in high stations, who have manifested so much 
lenity and regard to us on this occasion and the same time 
to acquaint them, that no endeavours on our part will be 
wanting, to influence our Friends in Pensilvania, to con- 



254 .1 QuaJi-cr Expcrinicnt in Crorcnnnenf. 

duct themselves in such a manner as to merit the confi- 
dence reposed in the Society. 

And farther the Committee is not without hopes, that 
tlieir seasonable «S: diligent application to persons in power 
may have been the means of strengthening their favour- 
able dispositions towards us, «S: has furnished various op- 
l)ortunitys to remove many prejudites respecting the con- 
duct of affairs in Pensilvania. 

The Meeting for SutVoriiigs and the Yearly 
fleeting adopted th(^ roeomniendations of this 
report, and sent k'tters to rhihulel]^hia ]n'aeti- 
eally reoapituhiting it. To insnre its favorable 
reeeption, they sent over John llnnt and C^hris- 
topher AVilson to nse their personal intlnenee in 
the same direction. 

Prior to their arrival, the six members of the 
Assembly led by James Pend)erton had re- 
signed. These resignations were ]")robably the 
resnlt of conscientious conviction. Those Avhich 
followed were influenced by a desire to satisfy 
the demands of London and Philadelphia Year- 
ly Meetings. 

Under date of Eleventh month, 1750, James 
Pemberton writes t(^ Samuel Fothergill, who had 
returned to his home in England, a letter nar- 
rating the turn affairs had taken: 

The business which detained me from accompanying 
thee on shipboard. T mean that of resigning in the As- 
sembly, was completed pretty readily, though afterward 



/y«.s7 Daya of Quaker Control of Assembly. 255 

much (liHapijroved of by Governor MorrJH and hiH Iriendu 
wtieti they found our buoeessor.s were huch a« did not an- 
fcfwer tlieir purpoh-ew. 

. . . Having mentioned tlius far to public alfairn, 1 may 
add something further with regard to our last election. 
Many I'rienUH were under some anxiety to know the con- 
tents of the erabasHy from the Meeting for buiferingH in 
London, that we might be able to conduct in Kuch a man- 
ner as should be consistent with the reputation of Truth, 
and the sentiments of our i'ricnds on your side, the latter 
of which could be learned only from the intelligence re- 
ceived in jjrivate letters w^hich it was not thought pru- 
dent at that time to make too generally known from 
divers considerations and particularly lest there should be 
any variation in what the Friends whom we expected 
might bring, and therefore such Friends who liad most 
regard to the preserving our testimony inviolate, thought 
it Ijcst to decline interesting themselves in the election 
any further than to prevent a majority of those professing 
with us being returned as Kepresentatives in the Assem- 
bly, and would have preferred that not one under the 
name should be chosen, and for this reason declined vot- 
ing themselves, and many others influenced by their ex- 
ample acted in like manner; but notwithstanding this there 
were too many under our name active in the election, 
whom no arguments could prevail with to desist, and by 
this means, and the apprehensions of others of the in- 
habitants of the ill consequence of Ijeing inactive, there 
are in this county of eight members of the House, two 
called Quakers, and one that was owned last year, and 
another who comes to meeting, but not joined in member- 
ship. In the other counties several Friendn were left out. 
However upon the whole of the 36 members who make up 
the House, there were 12 under the name of Quakers, and 
our adversaries reckoned them 16. J. H. and C. W. [John 
Hunt and Christopher Wilson] arrived 5 days after the 
election and on their communicating to the (.'ommittee 
appointed by the Yearly Meeting to constitute a Meeting 



250 A (Quaker Experiment in Government. 

for Sufferings, it was agreed to be most proper that these 
friends should have an opportunity of conferring with all 
of the members chosen in the laie election who went 
under our name, before they took their seats in the House, 
and intelligence was accordingly sent to them, and most 
of them came and much pains taken to convince them of 
the expediency of their declining to take their seats, to 
which some of them readih* assented; the first was old 
Peter Dicks and !Maylon Kirkbride who, and two others 
one from Bucks, and another from Chester were all that 
could be prevailed with to shake off their rags of imagin- 
ary honor . . . The House has been sitting most of the 
time since tlie election, and have as yet done little busi- 
ness; they have had under their consideration a militia 
law, which hath been long in the hands of a committee, 
and is likely to take up a great deal more of their time; 
also a bill for raising £100,000 b\- a land tax of the same 
kind as your's m England; if tbese pass it is likely Friends 
will be subjected to great inconvenience. As the former 
now stands, as I am told, the great patriot Frankiin, who 
hath the principal direction of forming the bills, hath dis- 
covered very little regard to tender con.--ciences, which 
perhaps may partly arise from the observations he must 
have made since he hath been in that Hou-e of the in- 
consistent conduct of many of our Friends. That it seems 
to me he hath almost persuaded himself there are few if 
any that are in earnest relating to their religious princi- 
ples, and that he seems exceedingly studious of propagat- 
ing a martial spirit all he can.* 

Tlie ten Assemblvmen who resigned, as also 
those who refused re-election, were succeeded by 
members of other denominations. + The twelve 

* " The Friend," Vol. XLTL, page 162. 

t " The manner in which you had proceeded in the con- 
sideration of our affairs, and the engagements you had en- 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 25T 

noiuinal members of the Society who retamed 
their seats were too few to commit their Church 
to any policy, and most of them had their actions 
practically disowned by the ecclesiastical au- 



tered into on behalf of Friends here, appeared to be con- 
ducted with a real regard to our true interest, and so per- 
fectly consistent with our sentiments that they Avere en- 
couraged and assisted by those members of this meeting 
in doing everything in their power to render the service 
proposed eliectual, in order to which those of our Society 
who were chosen representatives in the several counties 
were requested to give them [John Hunt and Christopher 
Wilson] a hearing before the usual time of meeting in the 
Assembly, which was readily complied with by all whom 
there was at that time any pro>pect of prevailing with to 
regard the advice and concern of their brethren, and in con- 
sequence of it four of them declined taking their seats m 
the house, and others not of our profession were soon after 
chosen in their stead, so that there are now but twelve of 
the members of the Assembly who make any pretensions of 
being called by our name, and several of these are not 
acknowledged by us as members of the Society. ... As 
six of the friends chosen into the Assembly last year had 
resigned their seats, and some others since refused to be 
re-elected those who now remain say they should not 
think themselves excusable to their constituents if they 
should decline the service, but Ave think it may be truly 
said, they were most of them so clear of intermeddling in 
the elections and so many friends declined attending or 
voting in several of the counties, that they appear to be 
chosen by a majority of people not of our profession many 
of whom are very apprehensive of the danger from per- 
mitting those who have been endeavouring to subvert the 
constitution to have any considerable share in the legisla- 
ture." — From Philadelphia ^Meeting for Sufferings to Lon- 
don ^Meeting for Sufferings, Twelfth month, 1756. 



258 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

thorities, Avliicli year by year grew more urgent 
against any compromise of principle. 

Three courses were open to the political 
Quakers in 1756. 

They might have given up their religious 
scruples and joined heartily in the defence of 
the Province; they might have stood rigidly by 
their principles, so long as their constituents 
would have returned them, and allowed the In- 
dians on the one side and the English oppo- 
nents on the other to do their worst, giving up 
their places when they had to; or they might 
have resigned as they did. The inconsistent 
position they held in the Assembly was no longer 
tenable. The first was the course of mere poli- 
ticians, the second perhaps of impossible heroes, 
the third of honest men who valued consistency 
above power. One cannot but wish that in the 
spirit of the Pembertons, the Fothergills, the 
Woolmans of their day, they had kept their pub- 
lic places in absolute obedience to their religious 
principle. The Quakers triumphed in England 
by non-resistant faithfulness to conviction. 
Should they not have tried, not abandonment, 
but non-resistant adherence to place and respon- 
sibility, when place and responsibility were hon- 
orably in their hands? Has not the world 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 259 

needed a more virile example of Quaker govern- 
ment to show the merits of unquailing, passive 
resistance to wrong and injustice? Would not 
the Providence upon whom they depended in 
case of military attack also prove their safeguard 
if in the line of duty in civil place and attacked 
by civil enemies? But probably the actual 
members of the Assembly were not the sort of 
men to present this brave, quiet front. John 
Woolman could have done it, but John Wool- 
man would never have been elected, would not 
probably have made a very practical legislator, 
and besides, John Woolmans were rare. The 
Quaker legislators were not careless politicians, 
neither were they heroes, but they were con- 
sciertious men, who, when the issue came bald- 
ly, stood by their brethren who controlled the 
Yearly fleeting, and preserved unimpaired the 
principle of peace to their posterity. 

There was growing up in the Society a belief 
which was vastly strengthened by the militarv 
experiences of the years between 1740 and 1780, 
that public life was unfavorable to the quiet, 
Divine communion which called for inwardness, 
not outwardness, and which was the basic prin- 
ciple of Quakerism.* Quakers had always had 



That stillness and abstraction I desire does not ap- 



260 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

strong mystical tendencies. AVilliam Penn rep- 
resented one type of active, militant (Quaker- 
ism, and Isaac Pennington another of passive, 
introversive Quakerism. In George Fox tliey 
were happily blended. The ease and prosperity 
and public responsibilities of Pennsylvania 
Friends had tended to develop the spirit of out- 
ward activity, useful but dangerous to the inner 
life. Ultimately it brought about the loss to 
the Society of many aggressive members, and a 
growing conviction that the place of Friends was 
not in political, but in religious and philan- 
thropic work. In these directions their activi- 
ties were more and more thrown, and the Yearly 
Meeting was strenuously engaged for several 
years after 1750 in pressing on its members the 
desirability of abstaining from civic business. 

This was done under the plea that, as matters 
were, it was impossible to hold most official po- 
sitions without administering oaths or voting war 
taxes. The former violated Quaker principles 
directly, and the latter enjoined on their breth- 



pear at prepent to be allowed me, nor can I yet attain so 
deep inward silence and attention as I find necessary, but 
from wilful disobedience or transgression of duty I am I 
hope in a good degree preserved." — Israel I'emberton to 
Samuel Fothergill, Ninth month, 1757. 



Last Days of Qualxr Control of Assembly. 30 1 

reii a service against which their consciences re- 
belled. In the interests, therefore, of liberty of 
conscience, the meetings urged on the members 
not to allow themselves to be candidates for ju- 
dicial or legislative positions, and in time were 
largely successful. 

In 175S a report came in to the Yearly Meet- 
ing from a large and influential committee ad- 
vising against furnishing wagons for the trans- 
port of military stores, and warning against al- 
lowing '' the examples and injunctions of some 
members of our Society who are employed in 
offices and stations in civil government "* to in- 
fluence anyone against a steady support of 
the truth. They also recommend that the 
Yearly Meeting should " advise and caution 
against any Friends accepting of or continu- 
ing in offices or stations whereby they are sub- 
jected to the necessity of enjoining or enforcing 
the compliance of their brethren or others with 
any act which they may conscientiously scruple 
to perform." 



* The distinction between the ecclesiastical and political 
Quakers is further indicated in the following: " Thou 
knows that we could not in every case vindicate our As- 
semhly who had po greatly deviated from our known prin- 
ciples and the te^^tiniony of our forefathers." — Israel Pem- 
berton to Samuel Fothergill, Seventh montli, 1757. 



262 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

The Meeting adopted the report and issued a 
minute largely in its language. The holding of 
all civil offices is not advised against, only such 
as call for questionable proceedings in " these 
perilous times." 

And as the maintaining inviolate that liberty of con- 
science which is essential to our union and well-being as a 
religious Society evidently appears to be our indispensable 
duty, this Meeting doth with fervent and sincere desires 
lor the present and future prosperity of Truth among us, 
and the preservation of individuals on the true foundation 
of our Christian fellowship and communion, caution, advise 
and exhort Friends to beware of accepting of, or continu- 
ing in, the exercise of any olhce or station in civil society 
or government by whicli they may in any respect be 
engaged in or think themselves subjected to the neces- 
sity of enjoining or enforcing the compliance of their 
brethren and others with any act which they conscien- 
tiously scruple to perform; and if any professing with 
us should, after the advice and loving admonitions of their 
brethren, persist in a conduct so repugnant to that sin- 
cerity, uprightness and self-denial incumbent on us, it is 
the sense and judgment of this Meeting that such persons 
should not be allowed to sit in our jNIeetings for discipline, 
nor be employed in the affairs of Truth until they are 
brought to a sense and acknowledgment of their error. 

The advice is strengthened in 1762. "It is 
likewise desired that all Friends may be particu- 
larly careful that they be not accessory in pro- 
moting or choosing their brethren to such offices 
which may subject them to the temptation of de- 
viating from our Christian testimony in this 



Last Days of Qualcer Control of Assembly. 263 

(administering oaths) or any other branch 
thereof." 

In 1763 the Quarterly Meetings are asked to 
report the success of their " labours " in getting 
Friends out of compromising offices. Philadel- 
phia Quarterly Meeting reports some success; 
Chester, " a comfortable account " from one 
monthly meeting, but " cannot say much " as 
to the rest; Western (Chester county), "little 
success, but has hopes of more if the concern con- 
tinues." 

Bucks remarks that as " There appears an un- 
easiness in several of their monthly meetings 
with the minute of the Yearly Meeting of 1758 
as it now stands, respecting the treating with 
such as hold offices in the Government, they de- 
sire that the said minute may be returned to this 
Meeting for reconsideration." 

Bucks gained from this appeal only the sus- 
pension of judgment respecting the last clause of 
the minute. 

The matter went down through the monthly 
meetings, and in nearly all of them some recoids 
are found. 

In Goshen, "Third month 11th, 1763, 

were appointed to treat with such 

Friends within the Meeting's compass who hold 



261 A Qual-er Experiment in Government. 

offices in Government which subject them to a 
violation of the fundamental privilege of liberty 
of conscience." 

Fifth month 6th, 1763, they report that they 
have " taken an opportunity with one of the 
representatives of Assembly,* and that he do 
not apprehend himself culpable, and as to county 
commissioners and assessors there are none 
within the verge of this meeting." 

The Friends of these days had a large list of 
civil delinquencies to trouble them. Bucks 
Quarterly Meeting, in 1763, reports, " That all 
are not clear of administerlnc: oaths, nor of mili- 
tary service "; nor " of purchasing negroes, and 
that a religious education of them is mucli 
neglected"; but they are "free from paying 
priests wages and being concerned in prize 
goods and lotteries." " That Friends should 
not purchase nor remove to settle on such Innds 
as have not been fairly and openly purchased 
from the Indians"; that certificates should not 
be given to such as do, and they should be con- 
vinced " of the inconsistency of their conduct 



* George Ashbridge, who entered the Assembly in 1743, 
and notwithstanding the pressure of his ecclesiastical su- 
periors, retained iiis inenibership both in tiie Assembly and 
the meeting till 1773. 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 2G5 

with our Christian profession.'' In addition to 
these they now had to see after those who hehl 
offices incompatible with the same Christian pro- 
fession. Whatever Quaker political control was 
doing for the State, it was accumulating anx- 
ieties for " concerned Friends." It should be 
said, however, that in these moral questions they 
were pushing ahead of the community, and if 
some of their own members could not maintain 
the pace, it was not much a matter of wonder. 

The withdrawal of the Quaker members of the 
Assembly did not change its political tendencies. 
In all things, save a greater willingness to vote 
money for defence, it showed the same hostility 
to proprietary encroachments as before. The 
new members, while not Friends, were of the 
same political party as their predecessors (indeed, 
there did not seem to be any proprietary party of 
consequence in the Assembly), and were elected 
by the same constituencies. They doubtless had 
the support of the Quaker voters, and the same 
machinery (whatever it was) which had hitherto 
been effective. It was still in popular language 
the Quaker Assembly, and so remained till 1776, 
Avhen there was a sudden and radical change. It 
represented the " Quaker party " (of whicli prob- 
ably a majority were non-Quakers) and carried 



266 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

out its decrees. But the Society of Friends was 
in no sense responsible for its acts, any more than 
the Society was for the acts of Benjamin Frank- 
lin, who was largely politically affiliated with its 
members. Hence, while some writers, deceived 
by the popular language of the day, give the 
date 1776 as the downfall of Quaker ascendency, 
they include twenty years which Quakers dis- 
tinctly repudiate, and which were controlled by 
such as were not members nor fair representa- 
tives of the body. The Quaker control ended 
with 1756. In increasing numbers after this 
date they absented themselves from the polls, 
and though, after peace with the Indians was 
declared, some Friends were returned to the As- 
sembly, they never exerted more than a modi- 
fying influence in it. 

John Pemberton writes, in 1757, after the up- 
rooting of the Quaker majority of the Assembly: 
" Our country people seem to repent Friends 
being out of the House of Assembly, and if we 
do not use much precaution it will be next to 
impossible to prevent a majority of them being 
chosen next year.'' He adds, when they find 
how expensive and how useless the forts are, cost- 
ing £10,000 per month, and making the Indians 
" glory in doing mischief near them and the 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 267 

men " in thejn, thej will be still less likely to be 
satisfied. 

The effect anticipated was produced. In 1760 
" there is a majority of such who qualify by an 
affirmation." The next election, in the fall of 
1761, " was the occasion of an addition to the 
number of the members of our Society, of whom 
there is now a majority in the House so termed, 
which, if the war continues, may occasion a re- 
vival of our troubles on that account."* It 
thus appears that the people wanted to elect 
Friends, and would do so with their consent, 
but that only such as stood somcAvhat fast and 
loose with the Society would allow themselves 
to be candidates against the expressed wishes of 
the Yearly Meeting. 

A year later the situation has not changed. 

**' I wish they who are active in these matters could be 
persuaded to pay more regard to the engagement with 
respect to the number of those of our Society returned 
for Representatives, there being now, as last year, very 
nearly an equal number of our Society, and a large ma- 
jority of such who do not qualify by an oath." 

The " labours " were now, however, beginning 
to yield fruits. In the fall of 1763 the number 

* James Pemberton is the authority for this statement. 
It does not necessarily mean that all were Friends who 
refused to swear. 



268 A Quaker Experiment in Government, 

of Quaker Assemblymen was greatly reduced. 
" I should be very glad if the number of mem- 
bers of Assembly under our name was less, and 
believe some in that station now heartily wish 
they had harkened to the advice of their breth- 
ren, dissuading them from accepting the trust, 
though there are but fourteen allowed members 
of our Society in the House, yet as divers others 
are termed such our adversaries take occasion of 
clamoring and abusing us on this account, and 
seem now bent upon attempting by violence 
what they cannot effect by free choice." 

This quotation explains the general reference 
of the day to the Quaker Assembly. In popular 
estimation, every one who qualified by an af- 
firmation, every one who sjanpathized with the 
past policy of the legislative body, every de- 
scendant or close relative of a Quaker family, 
was a Quaker. Thus was saddled upon the So- 
ciety the responsibility which it diligently sought 
to avoid, of the conduct of the Government, in 
which its influence was still unquestionably a 
strong but not a controlling factor. 

The withdrawal from public life of those best 
qualified to attend to it in the country districts, 
led inevitably to a weakening of the standard of 
government. In the same letter with the last 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 269 

quotation, we have an account of " anarchy and 
confusion." " Vice of all kinds prevails in a 
lamentable degree; murder, highway robberies 
and house-breaking are committed, and the per- 
petrators have passed undiscovered; the minds 
of the people in general are agitated with great 
ferment, and the rulers of the people cause them 
to err; the few in public stations who have vir- 
tue enough to put the laws in execution have 
their hands weakened by mean and mercenary 
opposition, so that desolation appears almost in- 
evitable." 

James Pemberton rather apologetically ex- 
plains to Dr. Fothergill his own resumption of 
political life in 1765. He was much pressed by 
his constituents, and with great reluctance con- 
sented. It was done with the approbation of 
Friends, and he hopes it will not be looked upon 
as a violation of the agreement the English 
Friends had made. He thinks he can do some 
good to good causes, and keep out objectionable 
competitors, and so on, all of which seems excel 
lent, and induces one to wonder why the same 
reasons should not have prevailed on otlier 
Quakers to maintain a power so evidently for 
the good of the Province, now that the Indian 
wars were over. The probabilities are that they 



270 A Quaker Experiment in Government 

preferred to be a minority in the Assembly suf- 
ficient to leaven its actions, vet also so small that 
they woTild not be responsible for acts of a war- 
like character. 

It is possible Friends looked forward to a time 
when they might consistently resnme their po- 
litical activity and influence, when wars would 
be over, and a policy of equity and friendship 
with the Indians might be renewed ? In the six- 
ties there seemed such a possibility. But if they 
ever cherished the idea it does not show itself in 
tlie records of the times, and was nidely shat- 
tered by the Revolutionary war. 

In this war they were in an embarrassing posi- 
tion. It was, politically speaking, the work of 
tlieir party, which had always stood for civil lib- 
erty, and which plunged into it witli ardor. It 
was, however, opposed to their anti-revolution- 
ary and their anti-martial principles. " We can- 
not be instiiimental in the setting up or pulling 
down of any goverament," they said, in 1778. 
This negative attitude brought much misrepre- 
sentation and much persecution, and left them 
more than ever convinced that the place of a 
Quaker was not in political life. From that day 
to this their corporate influence has been exerted 
against such participation. 



Last Days of Qualcer Control of Assembly. 271 

It is sadly evident to anyone who, without 
prejudice, places himself in contact with the 
spirit and tendencies of the men who for seventy- 
four years controlled the destinies of the gov- 
ernment of Pennsylvania, that the high ideals 
and buoyant hopes with which William Penn 
started were only imperfectly realized. The 
government in which the sober will of the peo- 
ple should prevail in all internal affairs, without 
factional or selfish strife; where all should be 
equal, every conscience should be unfettered, no 
man's word should need any confirmatory oath; 
where fraternal kindness and even justice should 
go out to the natives, and no force should be 
needed or employed except toward individual 
disturbers of the peace; where human life 
should be sacred and human rights preserved, 
and where over all and in all there should be the 
perA^asive, restraining and directing influence of 
God's Holy Spirit, present because merited by 
holy lives and reverent hearts, — this government, 
which Penn saw in his imagination, never ex- 
isted in fact. Unholy party spirit was at times 
strong, religious liberty was abridged, oaths were 
only partially abolished, capital punishment was 
extended, the Indians were abused and angered, 
and warlike passion and war itself invaded the 



272 A Quidrr Experimeiit in Goverumcnt. 

territory; and finally the effort apparently broke 
down before the intiiiences exerted by seemingly 
insurmountable opposing forces. This par- 
tially unsatisfactory outcome is to some extent 
explained by these facts: (1) The English 
Crown, by its power of veto, its undefined au- 
thority, even over the charter, and by its fre- 
quent ^vars and consequent demands on the col- 
ony, was a continual interference with the plans 
of the Government; and (2), the Proprietors of 
the second generation were out of sympathy 
with the principles of their fathers. Yet one 
could not but expect obstacles, and there were 
many counterbalancing advantages. Perhaps 
at no other time or place in this defective world 
coidd the trial ha\e been better made, and one 
has to admit that the noble dream, even when 
worked out by a man so practical, so resource- 
ful, so skilful in adapting means to ends, of 
such nn imposing personality as AVilliam Penn, 
was incapable of full accomplishment under 
any conditions likely to be realized. All of the 
actors in it were not pure and consecrated 
themselves, and nothing else could save it. 

And yet it was not a failure. The world will 
return to it when times are riper. There will be 
another triiil of the principles of a pure democ- 



Last Days of Quaker Control of Assembly. 273 

racy, with perfect civil and religious liberty, per- 
fect justice to neighbors, never attacking, and 
without need or provision for armed defence, 
which will be permanently successful. The 
leaven is working, and one by one men are being 
convinced of the right and expediency of some or 
all of its features. Xations are adopting them, 
and with every advance there is an approxima- 
tion to the experiment of Penn. 

It must not be forgotten that notwithstanding 
all difficulties and imperfections there was for 
seventy years an efficient government in Penn- 
sylvania, based largely on Penn's ideas. There 
were no wars or external troubles. The home 
affairs were quiet and orderly. Prosperity and 
contentment reigned, immigrants came in unpre- 
cedented numbers, and the public finances were 
so managed as to encourage trade, and lay no un- 
necessary burdens. Peace and justice were for 
two generations found available defences for a 
successful State. 

The failures are as instructive as the successes. 
Had William Penn's Indian policy prevailed, 
there was no need of Pennsylvania's embroil- 
ment in the French and Indian wars. The pol- 
icy of peace is closely interwoven with that of 
justice. If other powers are exasperated by im- 



274 A Quaker Experiment in Government. 

fair dealings it will not do to fold one's arms and 
cry for peace. The experiment, in order to be 
conclusive, must involve rigid uprightness on the 
part of the State that objects to war. When, 
therefore, the breakdown of Quaker policy, in 
1756, is pointed to, it should also be stated that 
it was very largely due to the injection into the 
political situation of the non-Quaker manage- 
ment of the Proprietors. As long as exact jus- 
tice prevailed peace existed, and this is the les- 
son of Pennsylvania. 



31 ©uafecr lExperiment in (Sofeernment 

Part Etaa: 
Wi)z (I^uakers in tfje Eeijolution 



PREFACE. 

The purpose of tliis monograpli is neither to 
defend nor to condemn the position taken by the 
Friends of Pennsylvania during the Eevolution- 
ary War; but as accurately as possible, in the 
light of contemporary writings found in the 
records of meetings, ^^rivate letters and public 
documents, to state that position fairly. 

It is not to be greatly wondered at that they 
have been misunderstood. They were friends of 
liberty, but opposed to war ; desirous of main- 
taining their civil rights, but by other means than 
illegality and revolution, and unwilling to afford 
aid to the British ; divided in their sympathies, 
but largely united in the stand that they could 
take no part in the strife of the day. Their 
attitude has thus been variously stated as one 
side or the other has been exclusively seen. 

The question was at the time an important 
one. Up to this date they had been the most 
potent single political influence in the province, 
whose unequaled prosperity was largely due to 
the institutions and principles of their first great 



leader, William Penn, and their own administra- 
tion of affairs. It was felt by friend and foe 
alike that the attempt to draw unwilling Penn- 
sylvania into the revolutionary movement would 
largely depend on the direction and extent of their 
influence. Unquestionably they, like most con- 
servative and order-loving Philadelphians, opposed 
it in its early stages. 

Whether this ojDposition would have been suc- 
cessful had Pennsylvania been left to itself is an 
open question, but when war and revolution 
became inevitable and their charter was cast aside, 
they issued a declaration of neutrality. They 
were neither Tories nor revolutionists. They did 
not seek protection within British lines nor join 
the American forces. 

Isaac Shaepless. 

Haverford College, 
1899. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTORY, 1 



CHAPTER II. 
The Friendly Association, 21 

CHAPTER III. 
The Paxton Riot, 42 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Contest With the Proprietors, . . 64 

CHAPTER V. 
Preparing for the Revolution, .... 75 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Early Years of the Revolution, . 120 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Virginia Exiles, 145 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Quaker Suffering, 172 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Free Quakers, 207 

CHAPTER X. 
Friends and Slavery 224 



"We have a just sense of the rahie of our religious 
and civil liberties, and have ever been and are desirous 
of preserving them by all such measures as are not 
inconsistent with our Christian profession and principles, 
and though we believe it to be our duty to submit to 
the powers which in the course of Divine "Providence are 
set over us, where there hath been or is any oppression or 
cause of suffering, we are engaged with Christian meek- 
ness and firmness to petition and remonstrate against it 
and to endeavor by just reasoning and arguments to 
assert our rights and privileges in order to obtain relief." 
A Friends' Minute of 1775. 



E\}t ©uafeers in tfje J^rbolutton. 



CHAPTEK I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

The province of Pennsylvania, during the 
first three-quarters of a century of its existence, 
had made more rapid progress in numbers, 
wealth and internal peace and comfort than any 
other of the English colonies which lined the 
coast. At the end of this period, when our his- 
tory begins, it contained perhaps two hundred 
thousand people, of wdiom one-eighth were in 
the city of Philadelphia. This city was, in 
number of inhabitants and in commerce, the 
chief city of America. 

This rapid growth was due to the large immi- 
gration induced by religious liberty, peace with 
the Indians, and fertile and cheap land. Since 
1701 the political institutions were governed by 
William Penn's last charter, with such modifi- 
cations as the English Court chose to apply, with 
or without regard to previous promises. 

The government included a lieutenant-gov- 
ernor (appointed by the Penns, who themselves 



2 ■ Qual-ers in the Eevolution. 

thus nominally hold the ]H^st of (u">vernor), who 
suiTonndod himself with a comieil of advisers, 
lie had an unlimited veto (n'er leuislation, which 
he did not hesitate to exercise. The Assembly, 
which originated all laws, was a ]x~)pnlarly-electeil 
body. Every freeman owning tifty acres of 
land, or property worth fifty pounds, was en- 
titled to vote. The judges were appointed by 
the Governor, and the other provincial otHcers 
were also ai'ipointed by him from twice the 
number of eligibles elected by the people. 

Of religious bodies the Province possessed the 
greatest variety to be found in any part of the 
British possessions. The Friends, for perhaps 
twenty years after 108:?, had a numerical 
ascendancy, which, by the increase of the other 
elements of the population, became a continu- 
ally-decreasing minority. There may have been 
forty thousand in 1760. 

The Germans began to come in immediately 
after the settlement of the Province. William 
Penn made particular efforts, through Benja- 
min Furly and others, to interest the dwellers 
along the Phine holding sym]iathetic religioTis 
views witli his own, and burdened with military 
exactions, in his new state. The stream once 
started, durine,- the first half of the eiditeenth 



Introductory. 3 

century they came in ever-increasing numbers. 
James Logan became alarmed. In 1717 he 
writes : " We have great numbers of Palatines 
poured in upon us, without any recommendation 
or notice, which gives the country some uneasi- 
ness, for foreigners do not so well among us as 
our own people." vStill their numbers grew. 
Pennsylvania was their objective point, and 
they could not be prevailed upon to stop in Xew 
'^V>rk. In one year (1740) as many as twelve 
thousand came to Philadelphia, 'i'liey quickly 
y)ressed on into the country, leaving tlie city and 
its neighborhood undisturbed. 

Of the Germans many were Mennonites, 
Dunkards and Schwenkf elders, who were at one 
with the Friends on the subjects of war and 
oaths, and simplicity of living and dress. Being 
quiet, unambitious farmers, they wo^re con- 
tent to allow the Quakers to govern them, and 
lived for two generations without material 
change in their habits of life or thought. 

The Moravians came about 1740, and made 
Bethlehem the garden-spot of the Province. 
They lived almost an ideal life, devoted to right- 
eousness and peace and the christianization of 
the Indians, in which last they were more suc- 
cessful than all other sects combined. 



4 Quakers in the Revolution. 

The German Reformed and the Lutherans, 
in numbers far exceeding any other German 
sects, came in during the years preceding the 
Eevohition. Though to the Phihadelphians they 
appeared, as they left their crowded boats in the 
Delaware River, to be boorish, uncleanly and 
uneducated, many of them were religious men 
of strong convictions and considerable learning. 
They added to the province an element of 
honesty, industry and conservatism, which, as a 
state, it has not lost. 

The Church of England established itself in 
the very early days of the province, and main- 
tained a steady growth, especially in the city of 
Philadelphia. Towards revolutionary times its 
members shared with Friends the commercial 
and social supremacy of the province. 

The Presbyterians also became numerous in 
the city. ^Loreover, they were scattered widely 
through the coimtry districts, and their energy 
resulted in many proselytes. Cotemporaneous 
with the German immigration there w^as another 
of almost equal proportions from the north of 
Ireland, made up exclusively of Presbyterians. 
Some of these were well educated, and became 
the school teachers of the province. The most, 
however, were untaught, uncouth people, of rest- 



Introductory. 5 

less vigor, who sought the frontiers, making a 
fringe outside the German line. By their scorn 
of conciliation they rather invited Indian at- 
tacks, which no scruples prevented them from 
returning. Politically they were in the oppo- 
sition through all the colonial days, but had their 
ascendancy during and after the Revolutionary 
war, which they largely supplied with soldiers, 
generals and statesmen. 

Every Protestant Christian sect was politically 
the equal of every other. Catholics, Jews and 
Socinians could not hold office, but their num- 
bers were small, and while provincial parties 
were often separated rather sharply by denomi- 
national boundaries, no tests gave one organiza- 
tion any advantage over the others. What was 
gained was by legitimate influence and honest 
public service. 

The Friends had given up their control of the 
Pennsylvania Assembly in 1756. The war which 
the Governor and Council had declared against 
the Delaware Indians seemed to make it imprac- 
ticable for uncompromising peace men to re- 
main longer in the government. Their cautious 
brethren, whose influence was supreme in Phila- 
delphia Yearly Meeting, urged them to sacrifice 
place to principle. Their co-religionists in Eng- 



6 Qiial-crs in flic Fevohition. 

land IkuI nskod the ^liiiistry not to drive them 
out bv the iiii]H>sitioii of nn ontli, and liad sent 
over a deputation to use ])ersonal inliuenee with 
all legislators who had a nieniberslii]i among 
Friends to resign or refuse reeleetion. 

This seemed the only way to get them out. 
Though bitterly attaeked for their unwillingness 
to provide military ]'>r(n'isions, an attaek hardly 
justified in late velars by their reeord, they were 
strong in the eontidenee of the voters. Kven in 
the disastrous times immediately following the 
defeat of Braddoek, twenty-eight of the thirty- 
six Assemblymen (deeted were Friends, and 
there seemed to be no abatement of their popu- 
lar strength. Though they were by this time 
iniluential by virtue of numbers and of eonimer- 
eial and soeial standing, they were yet a consid- 
erable minority of the total population. 

The (Terman bodies, who sympathized with 
their ethical views and appreciated their eco- 
nomical administration of the finances of the 
Province, and their successful defence of popu- 
lar rights against proprietary pretensions, voted 
for them almost to a man. There could be seen 
not infrei|uently the spectacle of a connnunity 
of (icrmans solidly voting for one of a handful 
of (Quakers in their midst. 



Introductory. 7 

The resignation of ten of the Quaker mem- 
bers of the AH.sembly in 1750, and the refusal of 
others to accept a reek'ction, reduced the mem- 
bership to a small numV)er. Yet for years it 
required the greatest efforts of the meetings, 
now thoroughly committed to a policy of non- 
participation in the exciting politics of the 
times, to keep out of civil office their less loyal 
members. There was always a Friendly minor- 
ity up to the Revolutionary War, — a minority 
which, about 1703-4, amounted to nearly one- 
half of the Assembly; but in the main the 
church organization was effective. The specta- 
cle of Quakers in the Assembly levying war 
taxes which Quakers outside of the Assembly 
refused to pay, was so unedifying that many, 
for the sake of harmony, refused to accept seats. 
But while Quakers were thus in the minority, 
and the Yearly Meeting felt its skirts clear of re- 
sponsibility for the actions of the Assembly, the 
" Quaker Party " was in full control, and the 
policy was shaped on the same lines as prior to 
1756. The war taxes were levied perhaps a 
little more openly, but the struggle went on as 
resolutely as ever against the right of the Pro- 
prietors to interfere in the matter of raising 
money, against their right to bind the (Governor 



8 Quakers in the Revolution. 

bv secret instructions, and against their right to 
have their hinds relieved from bearing a share 
of the public burdens. 

The instincts developed in the ruling sect by 
three-quarters of a century of governmental 
control could not be suddenly rooted out. Penn- 
sylvania Avas the glory of Quakerism. It was 
hard to yield to the force of adverse circum- 
stances, but in their minds the vitality of the 
principle of peace was at stake, and after throes 
of internal conflict, the uncompromising spirit 
of ancient Quakerism triumphed even over the 
desire to perpetuate the " experiment," now no 
longer " holy," of the successors of William 
Penn. 

The most of them, however, did not refuse to 
vote. It seems impossible to ascertain just what 
party devices existed for the purposes of nomi- 
nating candidates and insuring unity of action, 
but whatever there were prior to 1756 were con- 
tinued. The party, therefore, held together, 
and practically the only change was in the stand- 
ard-bearers. 

The opposition was drawn mainly on denomi- 
national lines, and consisted of Episcopalians 
and Presbyterians. The former gave their po- 
litical support to the proprietors, who had now 



Introductory. 9 

joined their church, and thus controlled the Ex- 
ecutive Council. ^, Many of the latter were the 
Scotch-Irish of the frontiers, a resolute and mili- 
tant body, who felt the brunt of Indian attack, 
and while caring but little for the w^elfare of the 
Penns, were driven into their support by the 
desire to pursue a vigorous warfare against the 
barbarians who were murdering and ravishing 
their families and destroying the fruits of their 
labors. They did not attempt to conceal their 
scorn for the Quaker policy of feeding and con- 
ciliating the Indians, and were ever urging upon 
the Government the necessity of strenuous meas- 
ures for killing them. The Quakers in turn 
looked upon them as radical opponents of their 
whole scheme of government, and as represent- 
ing their former persecutors of Old and Kew 
England. A little later, when the aggressions of 
the English Government became the issue, there 
was a somewhat different alignment of parties, 
but now the Quaker and Presbyterian repre- 
sented the two hostile extremes. The great 
body of Germans, quiet and conserv^ative, never 
disturbing the Indians — notwithstanding, on ac- 
count of their exposed position, they suffered to 
some extent from them — gave their large support 
steadily to the Quaker side. The superior nimi- 



10 Quakers in the Revolution. 

bers, political strength and social influence of the 
three oldest counties, including Philadelphia, 
and their large representation in the Assembly, 
gave overwhelming power to the same cause. 
These conditions enabled the " Quaker party " 
to maintain its unquestioned ascendency steadily 
until the year 1776, when it suddenly fell to 
pieces and forever disappeared. 

The proprietorship was now vested in the sons 
of the founder by his second wife, Thomas and 
Richard Penn, Thomas owning the larger share. 
They had vast financial interests in Pennsylva- 
nia, and the right to appoint the Governor, and, 
through their instructions to him, to veto legisla- 
tion. He surrounded himself with a Council of 
his own and their selection, whose church affilia- 
tions were in the main those of the Proprietors. 

Notwithstanding the injunctions of the 
Yearly Meeting, several prominent Friends re- 
tained official position through these years. 
William Logan, the son of James Logan, Wil- 
liam Penn's secretary, was a member of the 
Governor's Council from 1743 to 1776, when 
it was dissolved. He gave his lonely vote against 
Indian wars, and while probably holding his fa- 
ther's views as to the propriety of war in certain 
circumstances, retained the respect both of the 



Introductory. 11 

Penns, whose attorney he was, and of his eccle- 
siastical friends and relatives. 

Isaac Korris, the " Speaker/' as he is usually 
called, was the son of William Penn's confiden- 
tial adviser, the sagacious, conscientious and 
wealthy Isaac Norris. He was elected a member 
of the Assembly, in 1734, from the city of Phila- 
delphia, and served for thirty years. In early 
life he continually opposed all warlike measures, 
and the " Xorris Party " had to encounter the 
violent opposition — amounting in one instance to 
a street riot — of those who advocated war with 
Spain, Prance and the Indians. He was uni- 
formly successful at the polls, and in 1751 was 
made Speaker, which place he held by successive 
elections for fifteen years. It was he who sug- 
gested the inscription on the Liberty Bell, 
" Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to 
all the inhabitants thereof." He was a valiant 
opponent of proprietary claims, and was ap- 
pointed with Franklin, in 1757, as agent of the 
colony to ask the Crown to remove the griev- 
ances, but declined on account of ill-health. He 
opposed, however, the transfer of the Proprie- 
tors' rights to the Crowm, and resigned his speak- 
ership in 1764, Avhen the Assembly passed reso- 
lutions demanding it. He was, however, re- 
elected. He died in 1766. 



12 Quakers hi the Revolution, 

He did not deem it necessary to resign in 1756 
with the other Quaker members. As Speaker it 
became his duty to sign all acts passed bv the 
Assembly, and his name attached to the bills 
making appropriations for definite military 
measures indicates the character of his views on 
the morality of war when wars seemed neces- 
sary. He was, however, greatly esteemed both 
by Friends and the general public for his ability, 
his character, and his love of liberty, tempered 
by conservative views of the means to be used 
for its protection. 

The Pemberton brothers had a commanding 
influence in the years preceding the Revolution. 
They were much esteemed and trusted in public 
affairs, and, unlike Logan and Xorris, were also 
actively interested in the management of the 
meetings. Their father, Israel Pemberton, a 
wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, was for nine- 
teen years a member of the Assembly. His son 
Israel was also an Assemblyman and a leader in 
supporting the peace principles of his sect against 
the efforts of the governors. Later in life he be- 
came so much opposed to the trend of political 
affairs that he declined even to vote. He was 
the head of the Friendly Association, whose ob- 
ject was to preserve peace with the Indians; and 



Introductory. 13 

he took a prominent part in all conferences and 
treaties. He was one of the founders of the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, which ever since has 
been largely managed by Friends. James, not 
less prominent in the church, was far more of a 
politician, and his letters betray the continual 
desire of an active and aggressive mind to take 
part in the politics of the day, for which he was 
eminently fitted. He w^ent into the Assembly 
when about thirty years old, but resigned in 
1756 on account of the Indian war. Ten years 
later, the troubles being largely blown over, he 
again accepted an election, against the advice of 
many of his friends, only to give it up when the 
commotions preceding the Revolution made a 
sacrifice of principle again apparently inevitable. 
John, the third brother, was a preacher, with no 
apparent interest in public matters — a type of 
the " consistent " Friend. 

The three brothers were all members of a 
band of a score of influential Quakers, who were 
banished to Virginia, in 1777, without trial, on 
account of supposed sympathy with the 
British.* 



* The Pembertons were in frequent correspondence with 
the Fothergills, the Barclays, and other prominent Friends: 
of England, with Moses Brown, of Providence, and with the 



14 Quakers in the Revolution. 

William Denny was Lieutenant-Governor 
from 1756 to 1759. His career was one of con- 
tinual conflict with the Assembly. He had 
given bonds to carry out the instructions of the 
Proprietors, which were in complete opposition 
to the popular wish as regards the financial 
measures which the colonial condition was 
thought to demand. He was not to consent to 
any bills for the emission of paper currency be- 
yond a limited amount, or which did not place 
the expenditure of the proceeds in his own 
hands, and the grudging permission to tax pro- 
prietary estates was so coupled with difficult 
conditions as to render it unacceptable. 

The French war w^as going on all the time of 
his adrninistration, and w^hile peace was made 
with some Indian tribes in 1758, chiefly through 
the agency of Friends and the " Friendly Asso- 
ciation," the savages did not cease to ravage the 
frontier. The line of forts extending from 
Easton southwestwardly across the Province to 
the Maryland boundary was an ineflScient pro- 



active men of their own Yearly INTeeting. This voluminous 
collection of letters is in existence, and contains reliable 
and graphic, though somewhat verbose, accounts of public 
affairs through the pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary 
tin>es from the standpoint of strict Friends. They will be 
frequently used in this book. 



Introductory. 15 

tection, and large sums were constantly needed 
for military defence. The Assembly did not 
seem averse to granting liberally for the pur- 
pose, but took advantage of the situation to 
make conditions strengthening their claims. 
Except the £600 voted him on his accession, in 
an outburst of hopeful loyalty. Governor Denny 
received no salary, and finally became convinced 
that his interests were more identified with the 
people than with the Proprietors. He assented 
to a bill taxing the proprietary estates, and was 
rewarded with £1,000. Another equal sum fol- 
lowed his assent to each of two other bills, and 
though he immediately lost his place, the £3,000 
must have been a partial consolation. 

Benjamin Franklin was at this time in Eng- 
land for the purpose of making terms with the 
Proprietors by treaty or pressure from the 
Crown, and very soon showed the diplomatic 
skill for which he afterwards became famous. 
His measures were not always scrupulous. In 
his endeavors to blacken the fame of tlie Pro- 
prietors, he wrote or issued the anonymous pub- 
lication, the " Historical Review of the Constitu- 
tion and Government of Pennsylvania," a tissue 
of misstatements and partisanship. The ar- 
rangements finally effected, in 1759, through his 
skilful management, wrested from the Proprie- 



16 Quahers in the Revolution, 

tors a consent to much that the Assembly had 
claimed. 

The second administration of James Hamil- 
ton (1759-1763) followed- the rather inglorious 
exit of Denny, and the struggle went on. A 
rising tide of resistance to proprietary claims 
covered the Province. The question most at 
issue was the right of the House, or the counter- 
right of the Executive, to control the expendi- 
tures. To be at the mercy of English owners, 
whose personal interests would, according to 
their construction, be in peipetual conflict with 
those of the Province — who, moreover, were not 
frank in their dealings with the representatives 
of the people, but tied down their agents with 
instructions under penal bonds, which it was 
difficult to ascertain, and which the agent had no 
authority to modify — would inevitably be pro- 
ductive of controversy. While the same power 
existed in earlier times, it was leniently exer- 
cised. Between 1710 and 1740 there was hardly 
a ripple of discontent, but every one throve 
under and rejoiced in the beneficent charter. 
Immigration was active, trade grew, peace was 
secure, taxes were practically unfelt, and the 
powers of the Assembly were unquestioned. But 
during the latter year the first serious demands 



lyitrodudory. 17 

were made for men and money for wars against 
England's enemies; — demands which grew 
greater with the succeeding years, causing great 
uneasiness among the peace men of the prov- 
ince, and stirring up disputes as to the methods 
to be employed in raising the money. These 
troubles gradually but manifestly changed 
Pennsylvania from a colony remarkably free, 
prosperous and unburdened, to one disunited 
and struggling under a heavy load of expendi- 
ture and consequent taxes. 

The Assembly had been all these years the 
faithful conservators of the liberties of the peo- 
ple. Conscious that this condition had been 
forced upon them partly by the Crown and 
partly by the Proprietors, and that the warlike 
pressure was used to extort money by means de- 
structive of liberty, they refused to make grants 
except when coupled with terms which secured 
popular rights. It were better to endure even 
the massacres on the frontiers than to have the 
Province brought more closely under the control 
of Proprietors who Avere using it as their private 
plantation for purposes of gain. " Xo man shall 
ever stand on my grave and say, ^ Curse him ; 
here lies he who betrayed the liberties of his 
country!' " declared their Speaker, Norris. 



18 Qual'ers in the EcvoJution. 

And now, after twentv years of struggle, the 
people and the Assembly, incensed against the 
Proprietors, oonhl see no other relief than an 
application to England to annul the charter 
£:ranted hv AVilliain Penn, and take from his 
sons the power to have any control over the 
government of the Province. They preferred 
to receive their Governor directly from the Eng- 
lish Crown, and take their chances of royal as 
against proprietary encroachments. This was 
unquestionably the popular thing, and in 170-i 
the Assembly, by an almost unanimous vote, 
directed Eranklin to press the matter to an issue. 

They had a strong case against the Penns. 
Though as property-owners the Proprietors were 
entitled to no other consideration than other 
property-owners, yet they continually used their 
political authority to advance their personal in- 
terests. This was the cause of all the bickering 
and delay over legislation, and kept the colony 
embroiled in internal discord. To augment their 
revenue they had greatly increased the number 
of licensed driuking-houses, much to the detri- 
ment of public morals. Whenever a purchase 
was made of the Indians they would locate and 
survey the best lands, doing nothing to occupy 
them, but depending for their profits on the 



Iniroduciory. 19 

increased value brought to them by surrounding 
settlers. This made frontier farms isolated, and 
exposed them to Indian attack. Under these 
circumstances their demands for relief of taxa- 
tion on unoccupied lands were unreasonable, and 
manifestly sought to place upon the poor fron- 
tiersmen a double burden. Taxation upon the 
proprietary estates certainly never erred in the 
direction of excess. 

But reverence for the old charter had not 
passed away. Xorris opposed the movement, 
and many of the steadier Friends stood with 
him. Before Franklin had made much progress 
he received an intimation to go slowly, and very 
soon the Stamp Act and the growing disposition 
of the English government to assert its power 
over the colonies took away from the Pennsyl- 
vanians all desire to change masters, and the mat- 
ter was allow^ed to drop. 

In 1760 the French war was practically ended 
by the surrender of Montreal and the transpor- 
tation of the French troops to their home, 
though peace was not declared till 1763. The 
whole of Canada and Louisiana were surren- 
dered, and the ambitious attempt to confine Eng- 
land to a narrow strip along the coast, while to 
the north and west and south the great power 



20 Quakers in the Bevoluiion. 

of France and her Indian allies should be su- 
preme, ^vas forever abandoned. 

The Assembly hastily took advantage of the 
situation to disband all its troops, except one 
hundred and fifty men, while the Governor 
tried to pacify the discontented Indians by con- 
ferences and presents; and in 1763 a successful 
expedition to Fort Pitt seemed to break the 
power of the Indian confederacy of the west. 

The colony now hoped for peace, but the In- 
dian appetite for murder and plunder, whetted 
by custom and a sense of unjust treatment, was 
not easily controlled, and for several years the 
frontiers were subjected to the desolations of 
savage attack, causing great suffering to out- 
lying settlers, increasing exasperation against 
the Quakers, who were held partly responsible 
for the conditions, and heavy burdens on the tax- 
payers for defence. 

John Penn, the son of Kichard Penn, and 
grandson of the founder, became Lieutenant- 
Governor in 1763. This place, or that of Gov- 
ernor, after he became a Proprietor on the 
death of his father, he retained till the Revolu- 
tion, except during a two years' visit to Eng- 
land in 1771-73, when his brother Richard, the 
most popular of the family, filled the position. 



The Friendly Association. 21 

CHAPTEK II. 

THE FRIENDLY ASSOCIATION. 

The early Pennsylvanians had ample reward 
for their fair treatment of the Indians in the 
abundant peace and prosperity that ensued. It 
was not merely the fact of purchase, though 
William Penn probably paid the Indians liber- 
ally, that prepossessed them in his favor. In 
various other matters he impressed them with 
the idea of anxiety for their welfare and a desire 
to protect their interests. 

He restricted the trade in skins to agents 
whom he thought trustworthy, and required the 
weighing to be done in public; he advocated 
mixed juries in cases where both races were con- 
cerned; he did not drive them from the lands he 
purchased unless settlers were ready to take pos- 
session, and he allowed the Indians to repur- 
chase as his subjects; he did his best to keep rum 
from them. Some of these benevolent schemes 
proved impracticable and had short lives; but 
they proved to the Indians that Onas was their 
unselfish and trustworthy friend, and through 
generations of tradition nothing could shake 



22 Qual-ers in ilic Bcroluiion. 

their belief in this fact. His brethren in relig- 
ious profession seconded his efforts and shared 
the Indian confidence. The red man passed by 
them, even in the madness of border outrage; he 
souiiht their dwelliuiis when in strange cities; he 
demanded their presence at conferences and 
treaties as a pledge of justice; he looked to them 
for the presents which, in the Indian mind, ce- 
mented friendship, and was duly grateful. 

It became a recognized part of the Quaker 
policy of government to appropriate large sums 
for the maintenance of Indian good-will. Be- 
tween 1733 and 1751, a period of perfect peace, 
we iind record of over £8,000 expended for this 
pui-pose, besides the ordinary expenses of In- 
dian affairs. And when we consider the nar- 
rowing of their hunting ground, the breaking up 
of all their cherished habits of life, and the 
havoc wrought by the vices and diseases of the 
whites, the grant may be defended on the 
grounds of justice, as well as of j^olicv. The 
same practice has obtained in recent years in our 
national treatment of them, for it has been 
found cheaper, fairer, and better in every way, 
to feed the Indian than to tight him. 

This policy was attacked on the ground that 
it gave the worthless, drinking savages money 



The Fi'iendly Association. 23 

which might better be appropriated to suffering 
settlers; that it pauperized them and destroyed 
their savage virility; and that when given after 
a war as the price of peace, it was an actual in- 
centive soon to renew hostilities for the sake of 
another reward. There is some justice in this; 
but the history of the years prior to 1755, as 
compared with the score of years following, is 
emphatically in favor of the Quaker policy, 
whether we consider economy, white men's pros- 
perity, or red men's welfare. 

Up to 1751, Indian affairs were largely in 
the hands of James Logan, who had conducted 
them for almost half a century with prudence 
and success. He became greatly influential with 
the natives, and while not always quite able to 
restrain the Governor and Council, had a power 
by virtue of his character and services which no 
successor could wield. 

The vestiges of the holy experiment disap- 
peared when, in 1755, the Delaware Indians and 
their allies, the successors of those who had 
treated with William Penn, joined the French 
and attacked the border whites of Pennsylvania. 
As Quaker influence could no longer be exerted 
through the executive branch of the government, 
it seemed necessary to have a new organization 



24 Quakers in the Revolution. 

to deal directly with the troublesome Indian 
question, and in course of time '' The Friendly 
Association for regaining and preserving peace 
with the Indians by pacific measures," was 
formed. 

The Walking Purchase of 1737, and the subse- 
quent forcible removal of the Minisink Indians; 
the Albany treaty of 1754, when all AVestern 
Pennsylvania was sold to the Penns by the Six 
Xations without the consent of the dwellers on 
the soil; the intrigues of the French to secure 
the alliance of the discontented under promise of 
recovery of their hunting grounds, and the impo- 
sitions of traders, had made the Delawares and 
Shawnees the open enemies of the English, and 
the Indian war broke out on the northern and 
western borders of the white settlement. The 
records of the times are full of the harassing 
details. Petitions for protection came in from 
dwellers all along the line, and the province was 
worked up to an excitement never before known. 
As has been so often seen in our history, the na- 
tives, goaded by wrongs, had in desperation in- 
stituted their cruel warfare, to be met by stern 
denunciation and a fierce cry for their exter- 
mination. 
The first effort of the new association, in which 



The Friendly Association. 26 

Israel Pemberton took the leading part, was to 
make a final effort to avert the declaration of 
war on the part of the Governor. In the min- 
ntes of the Provincial Council, under date of 
April 12th, 1Y56, we find: 

Several of the stiict and reputable Quakers presented 
an address to the Governor, bearing their testimony against 
war, expressing their apprehensions at this declaration, and 
praying that amicable methods might be further tried. Mr. 
Logan [William Logan, son of James Logan] moved for a 
full council to be called this evening, and the summons 
served instantly. 

The address appealed to the Governor to con- 
sider the very disastrous results of war, and to 
make yet further efforts for peace, and added : 

We hope to demonstrate by our conduct that every oc- 
casion of assisting and relieving the distressed, and con- 
tributing towards the obtaining of peace in a manner con- 
sistent with our peaceable profession, will be cheerfully 
improved by us, and even though a much larger part of 
our estates should be necessary than the heaviest taxes of 
a war can be expected to require, we shall cheerfully, 
by voluntary presents, evidence our sincerity therein. 

This offer was made in reply to the charge 
that the Quakers were indifferent to suffering 
on the frontiers, and were refusing the payment 
of the war tax just levied, under a false plea of 
conscience. 

The attempt to influence the Council was not 
successful, as indeed, since nothing new was 



26 Quakers in the Revolution. 

presented, it was hardly expected to be, " and 
after full consideration and debate all the Coun- 
cil [except Mr. Logan, who desired his dissent 
might be entered on the minutes] agreed that 
the Governor ought not to delay declaring war 
against the enemy Indians. The bounties for 
prisoners and scalps were then considered and 
agreed to."" 

The efforts to avert war being unavailing, the 
association made its next attempt to detach some 
of the northern Delawares under Tedyuscung 
from the French alliance, and to conclude a 
separate peace with them. Several thousand 
pounds were raised, mostly by Friends, but 
partly also by Schwenkfelders and other sympa- 
thetic German bodies, to purchase presents to be 
distributed on the conclusion of peace. 

The first step taken was to send a delegation 
of friendly Indians to express a desire for a con- 
ference. " From the time of the first messen- 
•gers arriving at Teaogan (Tioga)," Israel Pem- 
berton says, " hostilities on our northern frontier 
ceased, and an acceptable respite being obtained 
for our distresed fellows-subjects, we enjoyed so 
much real pleasure and satisfaction in the happy 

* Colonial Records, vol. viii p. 84. 



The Friendly Association. 27 

event of our endeavors as to engage ns cheer- 
fully to pursue the business we had begun, 
though many malicious calumnies and asper- 
sions were cast upon us by persons by whom we 
had a right to expect encouragement." 

Then followed a series of conferences, in 
which was much scheming at cross purposes. 
The Governor and Secretary Peters were most 
insistent to prevent any blame being attached 
to the Proprietors in connection with fraudulent 
purchases of lands. But Tedyuscung would not 
be refused, and whether drunk or sober adhered 
to his story of wrong, and demanded reparation. 
The Friendly Association, acting merely by suf- 
ferance, with nothing to gain for themselves, 
endeavored to be mediators, so as to secure jus- 
tice to the Indians, and also to act as loyal sub- 
jects of the Government. Unquestionably the 
success of Tedyuscung, who trusted them im- 
plicitly as the " Sons of Onas," was due to their 
advice and suggestions, though he himself 
proved to be no mean diplomat. The Five Xa- 
tions constituted another factor. The desire of 
the Governor was to use their influence to choke 
off the Delaware claims, while the Association 
sought to gain their help in encouraging peace 
propositions. 



28 Quakers in the Revolution, 

The first of these conferences was at Easton, 
in 1756. The Indians appeared to desire peace, 
but Tedyiiscung was not secure in his authority, 
and needed time to bring other tribes into the 
arrangements. He was dined, and left in a 
friendly humor. The presents of the Friendly 
Association were, by direction of the Governor, 
(who at one time refused permission to the 
Friends to deliver any present to the Indians), 
finally given, with those provided by the gov- 
ernment. 

Later in the same year a meeting of the 
Friends was held at the house of Israel Pember- 
ton, and they adopted the following address to 
Governor Denny, who had just come into office : 

The address of a considerable number of the people called 
Quakers, in the city of Philadelphia, for themselves and 
their brethren in other parts of the said Province, showeth 
that the calamities and desolation of our fellow-subjects 
on the frontiers of the Province having been the painful 
subject of our frequent consideration, with desires to be 
instrumental towards their relief by every means in our 
power consistent with the peaceable principles we profess, 
some of us had, by the permission of Governor Morris, 
some conferences last spring with some Indian chiefs of the 
Six Nations, from whence we are confirmed in our appre- 
hensions that there was a prospect of some good effect by 
further endeavors to promote pacific measures with the 
Delaware Indians, on the northern frontiers of this Prov- 
ince. 

That immediately after the conference Governor Morris 
sent a message to the Indians, in which he particularly 
mentioned our earnest desires to interpose with the Gov- 



The Friendly Association. 29 



eminent to receive their submission, and establish a firm 
and lasting peace with them. 

That from the accounts given us by the Indians who de- 
livered this message, we were informed that the Delawares 
reposed great confidence in the continuance of our endeav- 
ors to that purpo^-e, and after the receipt of a second mes- 
sage, some of them were induced to meet Governor Morris 
at Easton, and there laid the foundation of a more general 
treaty. That a considerable number of us atttended the 
said treaty at Easton, and, from the conduct and express 
declarations of the Indians were assured that our personal 
attendance was very acceptable to them and conducive to 
the general service. 

That in confirmation of the sincerity of our desires to pro- 
mote the restoration of peace, we had provided a present 
of such clothing for these Indians as they appeared to be 
immediately in want of, which Governor Morris was pleased 
to deliver them in our behalf. 

That as we are now informed, a much larger number of 
Indians are waiting to meet the governor at Easton. Being 
still desirous of promoting the restoration and establishment 
of peace with them, we are ready and willing, by personally 
attending the treaty, to manifest the continuance of our 
care and concern herein, and our hearty disposition to re- 
gain and improve the friendship of the Indians to the gen- 
eral interest of our country; and if our furnishing a supply 
of clothing for them against the approaching winter, in ad- 
dition to what is provided at the public expense, may in 
any measure tend to these purposes and be consistent with 
the Governor's pleasure, we shall cheerfully provide and 
send them to the place appointed for the treaty, to be de- 
livered them by the Governor in such manner as will most 
effectually promote the public service, and express our 
friendly disposition towards them. All of which is with 
much respect submitted to the consideration of the Gov- 
ernor. 

The treaty which followed was not conclusive, 
but tended to draw whites and Indians together. 



30 Quakers in the Revolution. 

The king complained of the forged deeds of 
1086, and of the Walking Purchase which had 
robbed his people of the ground where they now 
stood, and Secretary Peters admitted in private 
that the ''AYalk" could not be vindicated. "The 
Proprietors always despised it," he said, " and it 
was unworthy of any government." He was, 
however, unwilling to open the question, and the 
meeting terminated with nothing definite estab- 
lished. The Commissioners appointed by the 
Assembly, however, sympathized w^ith the In- 
dians and with the Friendly Association, and the 
aggressive secretary to the Governor was in- 
duced to yield his contention that there were no 
real grievances, only French intrigue. Presents 
were exchanged, and Tedyuscung, following the 
Friends to the ferry, told them " he had endeav- 
ored to turn in his mind and look up to God for 
direction; that when he was alone in the woods 
and destitute of every other counsellor, he found 
by doing so he had the best direction; that he 
hoped God would bless our endeavors, and 
wanted Friends to remember him. He followed 
us to the boat, and was so much affected he could 
only by tears manifest his respect." It would 
not have been difficult to preserve peace with 



The Friendly Association* 31 

such a man, if any respectable treatment had 
been accorded him. 

Another conference followed in Lancaster, in 
1757, thus described in a letter from James 
Pemberton to Samuel Fothergill: 

In the Fifth month last a treaty was held at Lancaster 
with a number of the Five Nations Indians, who had come 
down in consequence of an invitation from the Government 
to attend the proposed treaty with the Delawares, which 
was expected could have been held early in the spring, but 
that the old king (Tedyuscung), had not been able to ac- 
complish his business of collecting the several tribes who 
were interested in the matter. The views of our politicians 
were greatly frustrated in the issue of that treaty, as they 
fully expected the Five Nations would have undertaken to 
have confirmed the land purchases and challenged the 
DelaAvares for their complaints, but on the contrary they 
avoided this and acted with as much policy and more can- 
dor than ourselves (our politicians). These poor people, 
after being long detained, much to their loss, many of the 
principal men, and some of those we could place the most 
confidence in, being taken off with the small-pox, yet 
went home pretty well satisfied, and great numbers of 
Friends attended this treaty from various parts of the 
country. 

A more important conference was held later 
in the same year at Easton, where Tedyuscung 
had collected representatives of a large number 
of tribes who owned his sway. The Governor 
at first refused to allow the Friends to partici- 
pate, alleging that they were trying to persuade 
the Indians to attach themselves to their own 



32 Quakers in the Revolution. 

particular interest, and that subjects had no 
right to treat with foreign powers. In reply to 
this thev sent him a long address, rehearsing how 
they had endeavored to have the Indian griev- 
ances inquired into instead of raising soldiers 
and building forts against them, which had only 
aggravated the conditions, and that they still 
believed a peaceful policy the best in treating 
with them, and finally that Tedyuscung refused 
to go into the treaty unless the Quakers Avere to 
be there. They reminded the Governor that the 
first settlers were men of standing and property, 
Avho bought the land of the Proprietor with the 
understanding that he should clear up all titles, 
Indian and other; which agreement the first 
Proprietor had kept. They therefore had some 
right to know that the bargain was still intact, 
and that the present Indian claims on the land 
were satisfied. 

The Governor still persisted in his refusal to 
permit them to give goods to the Indians, or to 
attend the treaty as a body. They went, -how- 
ever, and had an important influence on the re- 
sult, with their £500 of presents. 

Tedyuscung made the unexpected demand 
for a private clerk to take note of the proceed- 
ings: as he e^adently distrusted — not without 



The Friendly Association, 33 

cause, as was afterwards proven — the notes of the 
Governor's agents. This demand was opposed 
by the Governor, who spent four days in pro- 
testing, intimating that the Quakers were at the 
bottom of this request, which, indeed, was not 
unlikely. AVhen the Indian firmly announced 
that he would break up the conference if the de- 
mand was not complied with, the Governor 
yielded, and Charles Thomson, a young man, 
then ma:>ter of the Friends' public school of 
Philadelphia, afterwards the secretary of the 
Continental Congress, was made clerk to the old 
king. The Quaker schoolmaster performed an 
important part in the treaty, and afterwards 
wrote up the whole history of the " Alienation 
of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians '' in a lit- 
tle book, which is still our highest authority on 
the subject. 

The flow of debate and oratory was kept up 
uninterruptedly for nearly three weeks, and a 
treaty of peace resulted. Tedyuscung ap- 
parently having carried his point that the old 
deeds should be examined and his tribe recom- 
pensed for injuries done them. He was, how- 
ever, deceived by the Governor, who did not 
produce the deeds the Indians most desired to 
have referred to the arbitrament of the Crown, 



34 Quahers m the Revolution. 

but others of minor consequence. The Friends 
failed to call Tedyuscung's attention to this er- 
ror, fearful of its effects upon him, and hoping 
to prevail on the Governor to forward the proper 
ones. 

The transaction was hardly calculated to se- 
cure a lasting peace. 

James Pemberton, in a letter to Samuel 
Fothergill, under date of Fifth month 25th, 
1758, gives an idea of the Indian condition after 
this treaty: 

I here^vith send thee a copy of the conferences which have 
been held with Tedyuscung this spring, by which it appears 
there hath been a favorable proi^pect of an agreeable issue 
to the prosecution of pacific measures, and if our govern- 
ment were but as hearty in endeavors as the old king ap- 
pears to be, and as some of their speeches to the Indians 
would insinuate, we might, through the continued blessing 
of Providence, obtain a more extensive alliance and friend- 
ship with the natives than ever before. Our frontiers re- 
mained unmolested all winter. . . . The Indians are acting 
on as politic views, as our most sagacious statemen can 
be; they find it their interest to be at peace with us in re- 
gard to trade, and seem to have a natural dislike to the 
French, but are determined to have justice done them by 
the English on account of their land, . . . They (the Gov- 
ernor, and Council) want the Indians to retract the com- 
plaint of fraud against the Proprietor or his agent, which 
they look upon as dishonorable, and I believe are now con- 
scious of the truth of it. 

The next step of the Friendly Association 
was to attempt to promote peace with the West- 



The Friendly Association. 35 

ern Indians, and finding the Assembly were 
short of funds to send commissioners offered to 
loan the money. The proposition was accepted 
with the thanks of the House " for their friendly 
and generous offer.'' Though the House was 
composed of a minority of Friends only, it was 
always in close accord with the Association in 
Indian matters. 

Still another treaty was held at Easton, late 
in 1758. Tedyuscung had enlarged his follow- 
ing, having with him about five hundred In- 
dians. The apparent object of the meeting was 
to bring against him accusations of unfaithful- 
ness by his old enemies, the Five I^ations, from 
whom he had freed himself, and to induce him 
to withdraw his charges against the Proprietors. 
The attempt was a failure. " Ted," as James 
Pemberton calls him, maintained his stand, and 
the conference ended rather ingloriously by get- 
ting the Indians drunk, and extracting from 
them signatures to deeds conveying lands far 
in excess of their knowledge, and only partially 
paid for. A member of the Friendly Associa- 
tion writes: " The time was spent in attempt- 
ing Tedyuscung's downfall, and silencing or con- 
tradicting the complaints he had made ; but he is 
really more of a politician than any of his oppo- 



36 Quakers in the Revolution. 

nents, whether in or out of our Proprietary 
Council, and if he could only be kept sober 
might probably soon become Emperor of all the 
neighboring nations." 

To a certain extent these treaties were a part 
of the political game of the times. The Gover- 
nor and Council, agents for the Proprietors, were 
engaged in an attempt to shield the reputation 
of their employers, and in this were seconded by 
part of the Five Xations. Undeterred by the 
obloquy of the AValking Purchase and the Al- 
bany Treaty of 1754, they were adding to their 
discredit and increasing their wealth by new 
offences. On the other hand the Commissioners 
of the Assembly unquestionably were not dis- 
posed to lighten the opprobrium, and were de- 
lighted in the skill and firmness of the old Dela- 
ware king. The Friendly Association, composed 
of men who had voluntarily sacnficed political 
power, though undoubtedly sympathizing with 
the Assembly, were seeking to undo the evils 
let loose by the bad faith of the Proprietors, and 
to restore harmony on all sides. 

The Governor, in the name of the Council, 

sent a report, in 1758, to the Proprietor, which 

contained this paragraph : 

We can not but impute the said Tedyuscung's making 
the base charge of forgery against the Proprietaries to the 



The Friendly Associaiion. 37 

malicious suggestions and management of some wicked peo- 
ple, enemies to the Proprietaries, and perhaps it would not 
be unjust in us if we were to impute it to some of those 
busy, forward people, who, in disregard of the express in- 
junctions of His ^Majesty's ministers, and your Honors re- 
peated notices served on them, M-ould nevertheless appear 
in such crowds at the late Indian treaties, and there show 
themselves so busy and active, in the management and sup- 
port of the Indians in those complaints against the Pro- 
prietaries. 

The English Friends secured information of 
this report, and advised their Philadelphia breth- 
ren ; and npon this the Meeting for Sufferings ad- 
dressed the Governor, denying any desire to 
damage the Proprietors, and urging a wish, pre- 
viously preferred, to examine the minutes of the 
Council to obtain material to clear themselves. 
This the Governor refused. 

The paper they especially desired to see was 
a report investigating the complaints of Tedy- 
uscung, afterwards printed in the Records of 
the Council.* It is a long report, going over 
the various causes of dissatisfaction, and defends 
the " Walk " and other matters of controversy, 
containing also the paragraph above quoted. 
Benjamin Shoemaker and AVilliam Logan, of the 
Council, declared the report had been sent with- 
out their knowledge, and that the first informa- 
tion they had of it came by way of London. It 

* Colonial Records, vol. viii, p. 246. 



38 Quakers in the Revolution. 

was now for the first time ordered to be placed 
on the minutes. 

In 1759 the Friendly Association, through 
Israel Pemberton, sent to Pittsburg two thou- 
sand pounds' worth of goods to be equitably sold 
or given to the Indians. Later in the year the 
British Government desired it to forward to the 
same place at its expense another consignment 
for a similar purpose. 

•The minutes of the later years of the Associa- 
tion are lost. Its life was probably extended till 
1764, or, as some say, to 1767. Its representa- 
tives attended two conferences in 1762: — one at 
Easton with Tedyuscung, in which he was in- 
duced to withdraw his charge of forgery against 
the Proprietors, but still insisted that the 
" Walk " was not properly performed, and re- 
ceived a satisfactory compensation for his 
mulcted lands; the other at Lancaster, where a 
general peace with the ^N^orthern and Western 
Indians was concluded. It could not, however, 
prevent the great conspiracy of Pontiac, which, 
in 1763, renewed the war all along the colonial 
frontier, and exasperated the borderers against 
all Indians everywhere. When, at Fort Stan- 
wix, in 1768, the final treaty was made which 
quieted the Indian question for the Colonial 



The Friendly Association. 39 

period, the Association was no longer in exist- 
ence. 

One cannot well attribute other than humane 
and well-meant intentions to this Association. 
Its undertakings cost too much in time and 
money, and there was too little to be gained per- 
sonally by its promoters, to allow us to suppose 
that selfish considerations entered into their mo- 
tives. That their presents were often of doubt- 
ful advantage to the Indian may be admitted. 
Indeed, the best thing for the Indian would have 
been to place an impassable barrier between him- 
self and the whites. But this could not be done, 
and, like the weak barbarian he was, he desired 
the good things of the white, and would not be 
satisfied without them. 

It was something more than. the forms of jus- 
tice that he so tenaciously appreciated in the 
Quakers, — it was their effort to conform to his 
own ideas of justice. It may have been true that 
in the Albany purchase of 1754 the Proprietors' 
plan of buying of the sovereign without regard 
to the rights of the subject dwellers on the land 
was in accord with the recognized principles of 
law. It was not in accord with Indian ideas of 
fairness; and even in legal strictness the suze- 
rainty was rather too faintly recognized to jus- 



40 Qualrrs in flic Eerolidion. 

tify the sale of vast tracts, covering the entire 
property of Avhole tribes. It was, at any rate in 
Indian eyes, gross injustice, to be resisted by all 
means. William Penn \vonld never have forced 
this purchase upon them. Had it been necessary 
to have their land he would have satisfied them 
as well as their feudal lords. The Friendly Asso- 
ciation meant to follow^ the methods of the 
founder, and the Indians knew it. 

The gain to the Province by a consistent 
course of fair dealing would have been immense. 
The friendship of the Indian would have been 
an effective buffer against French attack. The 
whites might have reposed in safety behind their 
red defenders. The troubles of finance and tax- 
ation, which created the hard feeling of the peo- 
ple against the Proprietors, would never have 
arisen, and the reign of peace and security might 
have had another twenty years of existence. 
The Quaker ex])eriment of peace succeeded 
while Quaker justice to the Indian prevailed. 
AVhen the Proprietors departed from this, peace 
departed and Quaker rule terminated. 

But, even granting all this, it may be plausi- 
bly maintained that in the end the Quaker policy 
would have defeated itself. The tremendous 
immigration induced by the free principles of 



The Friendly Association. 41 

government, and the security from savage at- 
tack, filled up the countrv at a rapid rate. Lands 
were cleared and hunting grounds vanished. 
What were the Indians to do? Labor was irk- 
some, civilization they did not want, and their 
country was emptied of game. A greater pro]>- 
lem than even William Penn solved was tlie in- 
heritance of his sons, and even had they attacked 
it in the spirit of their father they might have 
failed. But we have learned something of the 
Indians since that day; and while we know they 
are unspeakably cruel in war, we have also ascer- 
tained that they are trustworthy to friends, faith- 
ful to treaties, and reasonable in meeting half- 
way any advances made in good-will. Hence we 
may believe that there would have been found 
some feasible right way to settle the Indian 
question in Pennsylvania in the last century 
without fraud or war. 



42 Qmd'cni in the Herolution. 



CWXVYVVx IIT. 

Before lonvinii- the Indian subject we must 
relate one other episode whieh i^reatly disturbed 
the serenity of Pennsylvania Quakerism. 

Ciovernor John Penn eanu^ into othee in Oc- 
tober, iTOo. On the 10th of Oeeeuiber he hud 
before his Council an address of welcome he had 
received from the C\uiestoga Indians. This 
once powerful tribe, which had treated with 
William Pemi on his iirst arrival and secm'cd 
from him permission to reside on his manor in 
Lancaster (\nn\ty. had now dwindled down to 
twenty poor Indians, who lived by making 
brooms and baskets and jxHidling them among 
their neighbors. Their address congratulated 
the new (lovernor, complained of encroachment 
upon their reservation, and asked for the cus- 
tomary provisions and clothing as a recompense 
for the loss of their hunting grounds. 

At the sanu^ meeting of the Council was read 
a letter stating that on the 14th inst. six of these 
Indians — three men, two wonum and a boy — 
had been murdered in their homes, their bodies 



Thf. Pnxton Riot, 43 

rnutilatf^d and biamf-d, with their houses, by a 
party of fifty or sixty white rangers. 

The other fourteen were out selling brooms. 
They were quickly apprised of the danger that 
awaited them, and were hurried for protection to 
the Lancaster jail. A few days later the same 
band of whites galloped into the town in broad 
daylight, without any attempt at concealment, 
broke into the jail, butchered all the Indians, 
and rapidly and quietly rode away. These four- 
teen consisted of three men with their wives and 
eight children. The tribe was exterminated. 

The outlaws who committed this act were a 
body of settlers from the north of Ireland, who 
were fiercely exasperated against all Indians. 
They lived at Paxton and Donegal, south of 
Ilarrisburg, and with their friends became after- 
wards known as " Paxton Boys." They were 
actuated partly by religious motives, quoting the 
command to the Israelites to destroy utterly the 
heathens of Palestine, but mainly they were 
madly desirous to avenge the sufferings of their 
friends at the hands of Indian invaders. Their 
pastor, John Elder, though he preached a mili- 
tant Christianity in the pulpit, with his loaded 
rifle by his side, endeavored to restrain them 
when he found who were to be the objects of 



44 Quakers in the Revolution. 

their wrath. Either they did not respect him, 
or did not believe in his sincerity, for they 
moved him aside with a gun at his breast and 
went on. 

There seems to have been little excuse for this 
outrage, except the general one so often urged 
since, that the only good Indian is a dead In- 
dian. It was suspected that these Indians had 
given information to their brethren on the w^ar 
path. One of them had been accused of killing 
a man. But these charges were not proven ; and 
the German neighbors usually considered them 
as harmless if improvident mendicants. 

The province was thoroughly aroused. A 
lynching was a new thing in Pennsylvania, and 
excited vastly more indignation than it would at 
the present time. Franklin wrote a vigorous 
and denunciatory pamphlet. Governor Penn 
issued two proclamations calling on the local 
authorities to enforce the law and offering re- 
wards. Philadelphia and the eastern counties in 
general were shocked and felt that the province 
was disgraced. 

This was not, however, the feeling where the 
deed was committed. The Paxton Boys gloried 
in their acts, and made no secret of them. 
^Nothing could be done, for along the frontier 



The Paxton Riot, 45 

there was full sympathy with them, and no offi- 
cials would have dared to touch them. 

Emboldened by this sympathy they decided to 
extend their operations. A company of Indians 
had embraced Christianity through the efforts 
of the Moravians at Bethlehem, but as their loy- 
alty to the English was somewhat uncertain, and 
their safety in any exposed position decidedly 
precarious, it was concluded to move them — one 
hundred and forty in number — to Philadelphia. 
Fearful, however, that they still might fall a 
victim to the enmity of their white persecutors, 
they were further transported to N^ew York. 
There the Governor refused to receive them, and 
under the control of two companies of soldiers 
they were returned to Philadelphia and placed 
in barracks in what was then the northern part 
of the city, near the corner of Third and Green 
Streets. 

The Paxton Boys, reenforced by stronger and 
steadier men who were deputed by border meet- 
ings to carry their grievances to Philadelphia, 
concluded to treat these Moravian Indians as 
they had those at Lancaster. If the Quakers 
defended them they were also to be murdered. 
It was to be a war of sects, with the Presbyterian 
and the Quaker in hostile array. 



46 Quakers in the Bevolution. 

The motley crowd of perhaps five hundred 
men at the start, enlarged by popular report to 
ten times the number, soon passed over the 
ground from Lancaster to Philadelphia, and 
finding the ferries near the latter city over the 
Schuylkill guarded, and a heavy rain swelling 
the stream, crossed at what is now Norristown, 
and marched down to Germantown, wdiere they 
encamped. They had apparently expected aid 
from their co-religionists in the city, but the af- 
fair partook too much of the nature of a riot and 
rebellion to command much sympathy among 
property-owners. 

Great was the excitement in the Quaker City. 
The Governor called for defenders for the In- 
dians, and the response was liberal. In the cold 
February weather the improvised citizen sol- 
diery drilled through the day, fortified the In- 
dian barracks, and slept at night subject to sud- 
den call. On the 4th undoubted information of 
the approach of the rioters was received. It was 
a rainy and stormy day, but the inhabitants 
camped at the barracks. On the 5th, at mid- 
night, an alarm was sounded. As previously ar- 
ranged, candles appeared in every window, but 
the expected enemy proved to be only a body of 
Germans coming to the aid of the defenders. 



The Paxton Riot. 47 

On the 6th the citizens were still under arms, 
but the Governor sent a committee, including 
Franklin, whose conduct during the whole pro- 
ceeding met with the highest approval of the 
Friends, to arrange terms of peace. There 
proved to be only about two hundred of the in- 
vaders, and they evidently had no chance against 
a whole city in arms, so they willingly presented 
their grievances and agreed to go home. Thirty 
of them took advantage of their proximity to 
see the town, and rode in. Immediately the 
alarm was sounded, and the valiant defenders 
again sprang to arms. The matter ended as a 
farce, without the loss of a drop of blood. 

The demands of the rioters on the Govern- 
ment were that the Moravian Indians should be 
banished, and no others allowed to live among 
the whites; that no. attempt should be made to 
have the Paxton boys tried in Philadelphia ; that 
the border counties should have a larger repre- 
sentation in the Assembly ; that the Province, in- 
stead of voting money to propitiate hostile In- 
dians, should take care of wounded and suffering 
white men; and lastly, that the bounties for 
Indian scalps, which had been withdrawn, should 
be restored. Some of these demands were not 
unreasonable, but it is a melancholy record to 



48 Quakers in the Revolution. 

have to make that the last was the only one ac- 
ceded to; that the grandson of William Penn 
offered rewards for scalps of male and female 
Indians. 

!N^ot only the Indians, but also certain promi- 
nent Friends, notably Israel Pemberton, were to 
fall victims to the invaders; at least James Pem- 
berton was called out of meeting on the 5th and 
so informed, and such was the general belief. It 
is hardly to be wondered at that many of the 
younger Friends, and some of the older, should 
have armed themselves, with other citizens, to 
defend their wards in the barracks and their 
venerable elders in their homes. In the hot 
pamphlet war which followed much was made of 
the insincerity of the Quakers in their testi- 
mony against war, and it was felt by the meet- 
ings that a serious inroad had been made into 
the disciplinary bulwarks of their faith. 

James Pemberton writes, Third month 7th, 
1764: 

Although the minds of many Friends were, I beheve, pre- 
served in a state of calmness, and our Quarterly Meeting 
was held to satisfaction, yet it was a matter of sorrowful 
observation to behold many under our name (it is supposed 
about two hundred) acting so contrary to the ancient and 
well-grounded principle of our profession, the testimony 
whereof suffered greatly on this occasion, and furnished our 



The Paxto/i RioL 49 

adversaries with a subject of rejoicing who will make no 
allowance in our favor for the instability of youth, they 
who take up arms being mostly such who could scarcely be 
expected to stand firm to the testimony upon a time of so 
sudden and uncommon a trial, or such who do not make 
much profession. It must be acknowledged there is weak- 
ness subsisting on many accounts amongst us. I wish this 
probation may have a tendency to unite and increase the 
strength of those who are engaged for the honor of truth, 
that they may become instruments afresh qualified for the 
help of the weak by example and precept. One circum- 
stance I must not omit, in regard to the use of the meeting 
house which may be liable to be misrepresented: On the 
second day of the inhabitants' mustering a heavy rain came 
on about ten o'clock, to which being exposed, some of them, 
not of our Society, requested liberty to take shelter in the 
meeting [house], which on consultation with some Friends 
was allowed, and it would have appeared an act of un- 
kindness to refuse it, as it faces the court house and market 
place, which were likewise filled by other companies, and 
it had before been agreed, for avoiding the noise, to hold 
the youth's meeting of that day at one of the other houses. 

There was unquestionably a considerable sen- 
timent, led by James Logan in the previous gen- 
eration, and cropping out in the association of 
Free Quakers in the next, which made a 
distinction between defensive and offensive war, 
and, loyal in other respects to Quaker thought 
and policy, justified war in protection of worthy 
causes. There was without doubt a number of 
those who took up arms against the Paxton riot- 
ers who were simply youths, carried away by the 
excitement of the time and the natural sense of 



50 Quakers in the Revolution. 

indignation against murderers and rebels, who 
gave but little tlionglit to the ethical questions 
involved. Many of these afterwards reconsid- 
ered their position. The Edward Penington 
who led the Quaker company in 1764 was a dif- 
ferent man from the Edward Penington who 
was banished to Virginia in 1777. But, as the 
following events showed, there were probably 
not a few who justified their action through all 
the disciplinary proceedings which the meeting 
now entered upon. 

The monthly meeting of Third month 30th 
adopted the following minute: 

The meeting taking under consideration the conduct of 
some members of our rehgious Society in the time of the 
late commotion in the city, and being desirous of admin- 
istering suitable advice for the convincement of those who 
deviated from our ancient testimony in taking up arms on 
that occasion, of the inconsistency of their conduct in that 
respect, in consequence of the request of the Overseers for 
assistance in a Christian labor with such, appoints 
. . . [eleven names] ... to confer with the Overseers, and 
proceed in the service of visiting the youth or others on 
that account, in such manner as on consideration they may 
judge most likely to answer the intent of such brotherly 
endeavors. 

Three months later the Committee reported 
that " upon the whole they have met with a fa- 
vorable reception from most of those who have 
deviated from our religious testimony, . , . 



The Paxton Riot. 51 

though some appear rather in a disposition to 
vindicate their conduct." The Committee was 
continued. 

The next month they are rather more ex- 
plicit, but are again continued. 

We have in the strength and wisdom afforded us gen- 
erally gone through that service, and endeavored to con- 
vince them of the inconsistency of their conduct with our 
religious profession, most of whom acknowledge they have 
acted contrary thereto, and some appear in a good measure 
convinced of their error in that case; and a few acknowl- 
edge they felt convictions for their so acting at that time, 
and some vindicate their conduct therein. 

And a religious exercise hath attended many of our 
minds in the course of the service, on considering the 
manifest breach they have made and the necessity there 
is of maintaining our peaceable testimony against all wars 
and fightings, together with the different circumstances of 
those whom we have visited, many of whom were in their 
minority and appeared much unacquainted with the 
grounds of Friends' testimony herein. 

Laid over for consideration. 

The next month the meeting concludes: 

After some time spent in consideration of the re- 
port of the Committee respecting their visit to such who, 
by bearing of arms in Second month last, deviated from our 
ancient testimony, and the sentiment of Friends expressed 
thereon, and great tenderness and compassion appearing 
towards them under their different circumstances, it is 
recommended to the said Committee to repeat their visit 
to the several delinquents, and to administer such further 
admonition as may occur to them to be necessary; and 
where they find any plead the rectitude of their sentiments 
and persist to vindicate their conduct in opposition to our 



52 Quakers in the Revolution. 

Christian testimony, and labor is rejected or not likely 
to avail to convince them of their error, to produce 
their names to the meeting, in order that such further 
measures may be taken as the honor of the testimony of 
Truth requires, and to inform them in general of the 
concern with which the Meeting is affected on their 
account, and the earnest desire for their restoration, and 
that they may experience future stability and watchfulness 
wherein the preservation of us all depends, and the said 
Committee, on performing this service, are desired to make 
report of their proceedings. 

The results of the Committee's labors began 
to manifest themselves in individual acknowledg- 
ments of error and consequent restoration to 
favor.* The names, however, were not reported 
by the Committee. 

Again, in Second month, 1765, the Committee 
report, classifying the offenders. Thirty-two of 
them were under age, have been carefully in- 

* attended this Meeting with a paper expressing 

sorrow for his taking up arms in Second month last, and 
that it proceeded from the hurry and commotion which 
then attended and prevented sufficient time for reflection 
or opportunity of consulting with Friends on the occasion, 
and that the call of the magistracy for the suppression of 
a riot, which threatened murder to innocent persons and 
general disturbance to the city, prevailed with him at 
that time to join in a military appearance, but on serious 
deliberation he finds his conduct Avas wrong, and that all 
wars and fightings are antichristian, which being read, and 
favorable accounts being given by the Friends who have 
visited him of his disposition of mind, there is ground to 
hope what he offers proceeds from a motive of sincerity. 



The Paxton Riot. 63 

structed, and their case may now be considered 
closed. Of the others a number acknowledge 
their mistake; a second company are " jealous of 
the Quaker profession, but do not yet see their 
inconsistency"; while a third "wholly justify de- 
fensive war, in opposition to our religious So- 
ciety." 

In Fourth month the meeting advised them to 
drop the cases of those who seem repentant, 
and again directs the names brought forward of 
those " who contend against our peaceable testi- 
mony." This is not done, however, and the 
" labour " goes on from month to month, and 
other Friends from Philadelphia and elsewhere 
are added to the Committee. 

In Fourth month, 1766, the meeting again 
suggests bringing in the names of the refractory, 
but it is not done. So the matter goes on, each 
month bringing a new report, till Fifth month, 
1767, when the Committee finally reports that 
some are still unconvinced, yet they express a 
willingness and hope to be more guarded and 
circumspect in the future, so it is concluded not 
to send in any names. The meeting hopes 
that Friends will still labor " at every seasonable 
opportunity," and finally discharges the Com- 
mittee. IN'o one is " disowned," but the three 



54 Quakers in the Revolution, 

and one-quarter years of quiet and loving per- 
sonal intercourse between the participants and a 
large and influential Committee doubtless had 
its great effect in strengthening the position of 
the meeting, though there are frequent evidences 
that there was then considerable discord among 
Friends. 

Samuel Wetherill, writing shortly after, says 
that during the disturbance " Xot an individual 
in the Society appeared to discountenance the 
thing," and adds: 

There were divers conferences held on the subject, in 
which the members of the Society were divided in opinion; 
some thought they should proceed as the discipline directs, 
which requires an acknowledgement for such conduct, or 
that the Society should bear a testimony against the 
violators of the rule. But there were other persons, men 
of virtue or superior understanding, who could not proceed 
to condemn men for doing that which at the time of trial 
was generally approbated. These Friends prevailed over 
the others, and the business ended; had the sentiments 
of the other Friends prevailed the Society would have 
merited the highest reproach. 

This was written after the author had taken, 
during the It evolutionary War, decided grounds 
in favor of the armed support of the American 
cause. 

The whole question is important, because it 
had considerable influence in formulating views 



The Paxton Riot, 65 

for and against the propriety of Friends joining 
tlie independence forces a dozen years later. 

If ever war could be advocated, or even palli- 
ated, here was a case. Defenceless Indians and 
worthy citizens were to be slaughtered by a body 
of border rangers who had shown their temper 
at Conestoga and Lancaster. The laws of the 
land were defied, and the constituted authorities 
called for aid. It might be considered simply as 
doing police duty to stand between the rioters 
and their victims ; and after all, no one was hurt, 
and only a show of force was necessary. 

Yet to the Quaker mind of the time it meant 
war, and not police duty. The distinction be- 
tween the two was pretty well threshed out in 
the controversy between the Assembly and Gov- 
ernor Thomas, in 1740-42. Had a continued re- 
sistance been made, there would have been 
drilling and fighting, murder and devastation, 
hatred and vindictive feeling; and these men, 
who had so enthusiastically rushed to arms, 
would have been soldiers and not policemen. 

There is usually — at least on one side, and 
often on both — an excellent excuse; and if the 
Quakers had any special testimony against war 
in itself it was necessary to maintain it even 
when the right was manifestly with them, as in 



56 Quakers in the Revolution. 

this case. To them war was not wrong because it 
was inexpedient or the occasion insufficient, but 
because it involved the killing of innocent as 
well as guilty; stealing from non-combatants as 
well as the enemy; lying and deception, and the 
reverse of all the precepts of the Sermon on the 
Mount. Because the Quaker believed in the 
Christianity of Christ, and was willing to follow 
it even against the dictates of seeming necessity, 
he must condemn war and the warlike spirit even 
when every consideration of right was on his 
side. And so while these grave Committeemen 
may have felt much secret sympathy with their 
gons and younger members, for whom they 
opened the meeting-house in the February rain- 
storm, they saw also pretty clearly that the vital- 
ity of their testimony to peace depended on their 
winning back their erring youth, and setting 
themselves right before a very critical body of 
fellow-citizens. 

The Yearly Meeting took up the question in 
the autumn of 1704. Evidently it was an ex- 
citing subject, and all the solemnity of such a 
meeting was necessary to a grave and quiet con- 
sideration of its various phases. We have no 
record of the discussion, but the minutes simply 



The Paxton Eiot. 57 

call for a general support of the Monthly Meet- 
ing in dealing with the offenders. 

After a solid and weighty deliberation on the affecting 
occasion mentioned in the report from Philadelphia 
Quarter in respect to the deviation from our ancient 
peaceable testimony manifested by the conduct of several 
members of our religious Society in the time of the hurry 
and commotion which happened in that city in the Second 
month last, and a fervent concern at this time prevailing 
for the support of our Christian testimony in all its 
branches and for the restoration of those who have erred 
therefrom; in order for a more full and close considera- 
tion of what is incumbent on this Meeting to do on this 
occasion, it is recommended to Friends to labor to con- 
tinue under the calming influence with which this sitting 
has been attended, that in the further deliberation on this 
subject the Meeting may be able to come to such result 
thereon as the honor of Truth at this time requires. 

In a long letter to their London brethren, 
written within three weeks of the excitement, 
the Meeting for Sufferings details the Indian 
massacres and the events in Germantown and 
Philadelphia, and concludes: 

During these tumults a few members of our Society were 
hurried, under the apprehension of immediate danger, to 
appear in arms, contrary to our religious profession and 
principles, whose example was followed by some of our 
youth, which hath been and is a subject of real concern 
to those who experienced in this time of trial the calming 
influence of that spirit which preserves in a steady de- 
pendence on the alone protection of Divine Providence, and 
we hope endeavours will be extended by those in the 
meekness of true wisdom, for the help and restoration of 
those who have thus erred. 



68 Qualxcrs in the Ecvohdion. 



When Ave consider the ferments -which were then excited 
and prevailed, and the members suddenly brought together 
from different places in this state of mind, -sve have abund- 
ant cause with deep and reverent thankfulness to acknowl- 
edge and remember the merciful interjiosition of Divine 
Favour extended towards U'^. that thro* these commotions 
no lives were lost, nor personal injury done to any that 
we have heard of, and that the mischiefs which seemed for 
some time inevitable are for the present at least averted. 

This day of probation happened on the day appointed 
for holding the Quarterly [Meeting of this city and county, 
which nevertheless was attended by a large number of 
Friends, and we believe was a time of contirmation and 
comfort to many. 

With desires that we may be preserved through these 
difficulties in faith and patience to the honor of our Holy 
Profession, and in much brotherly love, we salute you, and 
remain, 

Your loving Fr'ds & Brethren. 

The general sentiment was probably expressed 
in the following extract from a private letter of 
an English Friend of the time: 

It was very affecting to tind that so many under our name 
departed in such a sorrowful manner from our Christian 
principles as to take up arms. To be sure it was a very 
singular and extraordinary case, it being to oppose the 
progress of horrid murderers; the view of this, together 
\\-ith the suddenness of their being surprised and many of 
them exampled into it, ought to be considered; yet it is 
of very great importance to the whole Society that our 
truly Christian testimony to the government of the Prince 
of Peace, and against all wars and tightings, should be 
maintained inviolate, and I greatly hope and much desire 
Friends on your side may be favored with true judgement 
and real discerning to act properly in so deplorable a case. 



The Paxton Riot. 59 

The papers presented by the frontiersmen 
containing reflections on the Quakers, and the 
whole matter being a subject of public contro- 
versy, it seemed desirable to the Meeting for 
Sufferings to offer a public defense of their con- 
duct in relation to the Indians. This they did 
in the shape of a letter to Governor Penn, dated 
Second month 25th, 1764. 

To John Penn, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor of the Province 
of Pennsylvania, etc. : 
The Addresses of the people called Quakers in the said 
Province : 
May it please the Governor : — 

We acknowledge thy kind reception of our application 
for copies of the two papers presented to thee by some of 
the frontier inhabitants on the sixth and thirteenth 
instant, which we have perused and considered, and find 
several parts thereof are evidently intended to render us 
odious to our superiors and to keep up a tumultuous spirit 
among the inconsiderate part of the people. We therefore 
request thy favorable attention to some observations which 
we apprehend necessary to offer, to assert our innocence 
of the false charges and unjust insinuations thus invidiously 
propagated against us. 

Our religious Society hath been well known through the 
British dominions above an hundred years, and was never 
concerned in promoting or countenancing any plots or in- 
surrections against the Government, but, on the contrary 
when ambitious men, thirsting for power, have embroiled 
the state in intestine commotions and bloodshed, subvert- 
ing the order of Government, our forefathers, by their pub- 
lick declarations and peaceable conduct manifested their 
abhorrence of such traitorous proceedings. Notwithstand- 



60 Quakers in the Revolution. 



ing they were subjected to gross abuses in their char- 
acters and persons, and cruel imprisonments, persecutions 
and some of them the loss of their lives, through the in- 
stigation of wicked and imreasonable men. they steadily 
maintained their profession and acted agreeable to the 
principles of the true Disciples of Christ. By their 
innocent, peaceable conduct having approved themselves 
faithful and loyal subjects, they obtained the favour of the 
Government and were by royal authority entiiisted with 
many valuable rights and privileges to be enjoyed by them 
and their successors Avith the property they purchased in 
the soil of this Province, Avhich induced them to remove 
from their native land with some of their neighbors of 
other religious societies, and at their own expense, without 
any charge to the public, to encounter the difficulties of 
improving a Avilderness in which the blessings of Divine 
Providence attended their endeavours beyond all human 
expectation. From the first settling of the Province till 
within a few years past both the framing and the admin- 
istration of the laws were committed chiefly to men of our 
religious principles, under whom tranquility and peace 
were preserved among the inhabitants and with the 
natives, the land rejoiced, and the people of every denom- 
ination were protected in person and property and in the 
full enjoyment of religious and civil liberty; but with grief 
and sorrow of some years past we have observed the cir- 
cumstances of the Province to be much changed, and that 
intestine animosities and the desolating calamities of man 
have taken the place of tranquility and peace. 

We have as a religious Society ever carefully avoided 
admitting matters immediately relating to civil government 
into our deliberations further than to excite and engage 
each other to demean ourselves as dutiful subjects to the 
King, with due respect to those in authority under him, 
and to live agreeably to the religious principles we profess 
and to the uniform example of our ancestors, and to this 
end Meetings were instituted and are still maintained in 
which our care and concern are manifested to preserve 



The Paxton Riot. 61 



that discipline and good order among us which tend only 
to the promotion of piety and virtue. 

Yet, as members of civil society, services sometimes 
occur which we do not judge expedient to become the sub- 
ject of the consideration of our religious meetings, and of 
this nature is the association formed by a number of 
persons in religious profession with us, of which on this 
occasion it seems incumbent on us to give some account 
to the Governor, as their conduct is misrepresented in 
order to calumniate and reproach us as a religious Society, 
by the insinuations and slanders in the papers sent to the 
Governor, and particularly in the unsigned declaration on 
behalf of a number of armed men on the sixth instant, 
when approaching the city from distant parts of the 
Province to the disturbance of the public peace. 

In the spring of the year 1756, the distress of the Prov- 
ince being very great and the desolating calamities of a 
general Indian war apprehended, at the instance of the 
Provincial Interpreter, Conrad Weiser, and with the appro- 
bation of Governor Morris, some members of our Society 
essayed to promote a reconciliation with the Indians. 
Their endeavors being blessed with success, the happy 
efiFects thereof were soon manifest and a real concern for 
the then deplorable situation of our fellow-subjects on the 
frontiers prevailing, in order that they might be capable 
of rendering some effectual ser\'ice they freely contributed 
considerable sums of money and engaged others in like 
manner to contribute, so that about 5,000 pounds was 
raised in order to be employed for the service of the 
public. The chief part thereof hath been since expended 
in presents given at the public treaties (when they were 
sometimes delivered by the Governors of this Province, and 
at other times with their privity and i)ermission) for pro- 
moting the salutary measures of gaining and confirming 
peace Avith the Indians and procuring the release of our 
countrymen in captivity, and thereby a considerable num- 
ber have been restored to their friends. We find that 
the measures thus pursued being made known to the King's 
Generals, who from time to time were here, and having 



62 QuaJx-ers in the Bevolufion. 

been communicated by an address sent to the Proprietaries 
of this Province in Enghind, appear, by their written 
answers and other testimonials, to have received their 
countenance and approbation. This being the case and the 
conduct of those concerned in these affairs evidently con- 
trary to tlie intent and tendency of the assertion contained 
in the said unsigned declaration, pretended to be founded 
on the records of the county of Berks, we do not appre- 
hend it necessary to say any more thereon than that we 
are (after proper enquiry) assured that nothing of that 
kind is to be found on those records, and that the private 
minute made by Conrad Weiser of a report he had re- 
ceived from two Indians of a story they had heard from 
another Indian pretending to be a messenger from the 
Ohio, does not mention any person whatever nor contain 
the charges expressed in the declaration. From the 
enquiry we have made we find them groundless and unjust 
and uttered with a view to amuse and inflame the 
credulous to vilify and calumniate us. 

The insidious reflection against a sect, " that have 
got the political reins in their hands and tamely tyrannize 
over the good people of this Province," though evidently 
levelled against us, manifests the authors of these papers 
are egregiously ignorant of oiu' conduct or wilfully bent 
on misrepresenting us, it being known that as a religious 
body we have by public advices and private admonition 
labored with and earnestly desired our brethren who have 
been elected or appointed to public offices in the Govern- 
ment for some years past to decline taking upon them a 
task so arduous under our late and present circum- 
stances. That many have concurred with us in this 
resolution is evident by divers having voluntarily re- 
signed their seats in the House of Assembly, and by others 
having by public advertisements signified their declining 
the service and requesting their countrymen to choose 
others in their places, and by many having refused to 
accept of places in the executive part of the Crovernment. 
We are not conscious that as Englishmen and dutiful 
subjects we have ever forfeited our right of electing or 



The Paxton Riot. 63 



being elected; but because we could serve no longer in 
those stations with satisfaction to ourselves, many of us 
have chosen to forbear the exercise of these rights. 

The accusation of our having been jjrofuse to savages 
and carefully avoiding to contribute to the relief and 
support of the distressed families on the frontiers who 
have abandoned their possessions and fled for their lives, 
is equally invidious and mistaken. We very early and 
expeditiously promoted a subscription and contributed to 
the relief of the distresses of those who were plundered 
and fled from their habitations in the beginning of the 
Indian war, which was distributed among them in pro- 
visions and clothing and afforded a seasonable relief. 
Divers among us in the city of Philadelphia also contri- 
buted with others the last summer, and we are well assured 
that money was raised and sent up by the members of 
our Society in. different parts of the country, and as soon 
as we were informed that the greatest part of what had 
been voluntarily raised by the citizens of Philadelphia was 
nearly expended, a subscription was set on foot to which 
several very generously contributed and a large sum might 
soon have been raised and was stopped only on account 
of the tumult which hath lately happened. It hath 
been from our regard to our fellow -subjects on the 
frontiers and sympathy with their afflicting distresses, and 
a concern for the general welfare of the Province, that 
engaged our brethren to raise the money they applied 
to promote a pacifycation with the Natives and no separate 
views of interest to ourselves; but thus unhappily our most 
upright and disinterested intentions are misconstrued and 
perverted to impose on the weak and answer the perni- 
cious schemes of the enemies of peace. 



64 Quakers in the Revolution. 

CHAPTER lY. 

THE CONTEST WITH THE PKOPRIETOKS. 

The departure of the Paxton Rioters left mat- 
ters in a strained position in Philadelphia. 
While no considerable portion of the people 
dared openly to sympathize with them, it was 
the general belief that secretly many were hop- 
ing that a change of political ascendancy would 
be the result of the movement. A flood of criti- 
cism and abuse was launched at Benjamin 
Franklin and the Quakers, and for a few years 
there was a close political alliance between these 
rather discordant elements. Franklin was de- 
feated for the Assembly this fall by a majority 
of twenty-five for his opponent in a vote of four 
thousand; and against the bitterest opposition of 
the Proprietary party, which hoped he was now 
permanently retired, he was sent to England 
to secure the transfer of the power to appoint 
Governors from the Proprietors to the King. 

James Pemberton writes to Dr. Fothergill: 

.Dear Friend : P'"'"' 1»"' ■"°- "' l^^*" 

I wrote to thee last on the third and fifth ults., when I 
gave some account of the great industry here using by 



The Contest With the Proprietors. 65 

our proprietary politicians against the day of election which 
is now passed, and they have so far succeeded in their 
unwearied endeavors of calumniating Benj. Franklin as to 
prejudice the minds of the lower classes of the people 
against him, by which, together with scandalous artifices, 
by a very small majority he is excluded from a seat in the 
present House of Assembly. 

Altho' they have fallen short of their intended scheme, 
A great majority of the old members being again returned, 
yet they exult on this occasion, their enmity having been 
of late principally vented upon him, knowing his great 
abilities and long experience in public affairs render him 
the most formidable opponent to their ambitious schemes. 

It is not unlikely some of the chief of his enemies 

may be prompted to proceed as much further as their in- 
fluence may extend to injure him in character and interest 
on your side by representing this occurrence an instance 
of his loss of favor with the people here in general; but 
that is far from being the case. They who know him are 
well assured of his integrity and retain a proper sense of 
his past services. No man in this Province has been so 
instrumental in promoting the public good; the most useful 
institutions we have among us may be attributed in great 
measure to his great understanding and disinterested regard 
for the benefit of this Province. I have had some oppor- 
tunity of observing his conduct in public consultations, and 
although have necessarily been obliged to dissent from him 
in sentiment on some occasions, yet am well persuaded 
he acted upon motives justifyable to himself and a spirit 
of patriotism free from views mercenary or self-interested. 

Matters were in a curious condition in 1764. 
There was a great attack by the opposition on 
the Quakers for managing the Province and con- 
trolling its politics. The Quaker meetings were 
at the same time using their utmost endeavors to 
prevent their members being chosen by large 



6Q Quakers in the Revolution. 

popular majorities to any elective positions. This 
year, by strenuous efforts, they kept their mem- 
bership in the Assembly down to sixteen, but 
the others that were elected, while not members 
of the Society, were very much in harmony with 
it on all political questions except the one ques- 
tion of military defence. 

John Penn had been cordially received a year 
before as likely to be freer in his actions than the 
preceding Governors, and consequently more 
open to encourage movements which would unite 
the conflicting parties. Either from necessity 
or choice he followed another policy, and was in 
continual opposition to the popular will. The 
people finally became tired, and concluded to 
give up the attempt to secure their privileges by 
harmonious agreement with the Proprietors. 
By a large majority in the Assembly they 
adopted a resolution requesting the king to take 
the government to himself. Franklin was sent 
abroad to conduct the negotiation. Petitions 
went around for signature and were signed 
by most Friends. James Pemberton writes to 
Samuel Fothergill: 

There hath been a long contest between our Assembly 
and the Governor in relation to a Supply Bill tliis winter, 
and as they attribute the occasion of their difficulties to 
Proprietary views of encroaching on the liberties of the 



The Contest With the Proprietors. 67 

people, they formed several resolves protesting against the 
same, and adjourned in Third month last in order to con- 
sult their constituents about applying to the King to take 
this government under his immediate care and protection; 
in consequence of which petitions to this purpose have 
been handed about and signed by a great number of the 
inhabitants, and as I have been informed pretty generally 
by the members of our religious Society. To this they have 
been induced from various considerations, on one hand 
being tired with the repeated disputations between the Pro- 
prietors and the Assembly, and on the other the riotous 
conduct of the Presbyterians and their fearful apprehen- 
sions of their getting the legislative as well as the execu- 
tive part of government into their hands. 

Upon second thought there came doubts into 
the minds of many Triends whether after all it 
would be wise to run the risks attending the life 
of a Crown Colony. It would mean, in the first 
place, the loss of their venerable charter of 1701, 
under which they had so signally prospered, and 
which had been the object of so many enco- 
miums. 

The Meeting for Sufferings, as the representa- 
tives of Friends, began to investigate the proba- 
ble condition of their religious rights under the 
Crown. The prospect of an established Episco- 
pal Church was only one grade if any better 
than the Presbyterian rule. They deputed a 
committee to interview the Speaker of the As- 
sembly. By this time this body was becoming 
perhaps a little doubtful of its wisdom in press- 



68 Quakers in the Revolution. 

iiig the change, though it had gone too far to 
draw back. 

Taa'o of the Committee appointed to apply to the speaker 
of Assembly of Pensilvania for information respecting their 
late proceedings, in the application they have made for a 
change of government, report that they were received 
kindly by him, and informed that directions were given 
to their agent to proceed cautiously in the matter, and 
if there appeared any danger of not retaining the religious 
and civil privileges the inhabitants now enjoy, to decline 
presenting the petition until he received further instruc- 
tions from the Assembly, but that there appeared no likeli- 
hood of anything being done before the session of Parlia- 
ment next winter. 



One can sympathize with the desire of the 
people to be free from a system which gave to 
non-residents, whose pecuniary interests were 
not always identical with the civil interests of 
the people, the power to appoint and control the 
influential position of Lieutenant-Governor. On 
the other hand, the Friends were hardly pre- 
pared to sink into the political insignificance and 
precarious religious freedom of their English 
fellow-members. The Yearly Meeting, in which 
the drift evidently was towards entire non-par- 
ticipation in political affairs, advised that " this 
meeting doth not find freedom to join therewith 
[in the movement to dispossess the Proprietors], 
believing it to be most expedient for us in this 



The Contest With the Proprietors. 69 

time of probation as much as may be to be still 
and quiet/' 

If, however, the movement is to prevail, they 
desire their influential friends in London to see 
that their rights are protected, and the Meeting 
for Sufferings writes: 

l\ratters appearing now to be advancing nearer to a crisis 
than heretofore, we think it necessary to acquaint you that 
the Assembly have lately addressed the King to take the 
government of this Province into his own hands and there- 
with have forwarded to London divers petitions to the 
same effect signed by many of the inhabitants, with in- 
structions to their agent to proceed with prudence and 
caution in so important a matter. 

This measure has not become a subject of deliberation 
in any of our meetings until now, when we find that many 
of our brethren have previously signed these petitions, 
and many others have not been free to do it. 

After consideration of an affair of so great importance, 
the event of which being uncertain and unforeseen how 
nearly we may be affected thereby, we think it most advisa- 
ble and safest for us to decline appearing in support 
thereof, nor do we choose to interfere further than our duty 
and interest appear to require, that in case this measure is 
likely to be carried into execution, to request and desire 
the continuance of your brotherly care and attention, to 
interpose with your influence, and as there may be occa- 
sion to represent our circumstances in such manner as you 
may judge most conducive for the preservation of those in- 
estimable privileges which our ancestors obtained for them- 
selves and successors, and which were a principal induce- 
ment to their removal from their native land, to encounter 
the danger, toil, and expense of improving a wilderness 
wherein their honest endeavors have been so signally 
blessed by Divine Providence, that the Province has en- 
gaged the admiration of strangers, and has been a retreat 



70 Quakers in the Revolution. 

to many, from the oppression and arbitrary power of 
foreign princes, whereby a great addition is made to the 
number of British-American subjects, nor are we conscious 
that by any conduct of ours we have forfeited our right 
to the enjoyment of them." 

In a future letter they convey £100 " towards 
defraying such expenses as you may be subject 
to on account of any application on our behalf, 
to prevent our being deprived of our religious 
liberties.'' 

Israel Pemberton gives his views on the sub- 
ject in a letter to David Barclay on the 6th of 
Eleventh month, 1764. 

Thou hast some years since had my sentiments of the lead- 
ers of the parties and their measures, and I wish I could 
on further experience think more favorably of most of 
them. The Proprietors have certainly been very unhappy 
in forming a wrong judgement of their real friends, and in 
rejecting the reasonable proposals of contributing toward 
the expense of cultivating friendship with the Indians be- 
fore any rupture with them, and since, in contending first 
for an exemption from paying their proportion of the pub- 
lic taxes, and afterwards for the tax being laid on their 
estate in an unequal manner. Xotwithsianding, the dis- 
position of people of al denominations to renew a good 
understanding with their family was very evident on our 
present governor's arrival, and it would tlien have been in 
his power (if his disposition and capacity had concurred) to 
improve the opportunity of putting an end to all those 
controversies, but either through his weakne-s or the ad- 
vice of evil counsellors, or both, this was omitted, and con- 
trary measures i)ursued. The smallness of the Proprie- 
taries' quotas toward the public taxes evinced that the 
mode of assessing was much in their favor, yet as soon aa 



The Contest With the Proprietors. Yl 



new supplies were called for the fatal resolution again ap- 
peared of screening theii' estate from sharing an equal part 
of the burden. This, added to the resentment raised by 
omitting and evading a due inquiry into the conduct of the 
authors and perpetrators of the late inhuman massacres, 
and conniving at the continuance of their further wicked 
attempts, embittered the minds of people in general, and 
rendered the government so contemptible that all hope 
seemed to be lost of any alteration for the better, but by 
its being taken out of the hands of the Proprietaries. 
Those who had long wished for it were so industrious in 
laying hold of the occasion that while the ferment lasted 
numbers were drawn in to sign petitions to the king to take 
the government into his own hands, with whom many 
friends of this city were so imprudent as to join, and those 
who kept out of the snare had not time and strength suf- 
ficient to prevent others from being taken in. The exer- 
cise and close trial this brought on many friends hath been, 
and is, very great; yet it hath afforded a full opportunity 
to the Proprietaries and their agents to see that there are 
some of us whom no resentment of the most injurious treat- 
ment could sway to retaliate by joining in these measures. 
A redress of grievances was so necessary that we could 
not blame those who from the duty of their station sought 
it, but in doing it to endanger the loss of those liberties 
and privileges by which we had been distinguished ap- 
peared to us imprudent. 

We expected the advice and conduct of Isaac Norris, who 
had many years been speaker of our assembly, would have 
had some effect, but in this we were also disappointed. 
Last summer, being in a weak state of body, and tired out 
with the tedious controversies with the governor, when he 
found the assembly in general determined in pursuing those 
measures, which he apprehended it unsafe to be accessory 
to, he chose to resign his seat. Some change being this year 
made in the assembly, and his state of health much re- 
covered, as it was said the governor had instructions to 
make some concessions, he entertained hopes of promoting 



Quakers in Hie B evolution. 



a reconciliation, and restraining from precipitate measures. 
He then was induced to consent to accept of the speaker's 
seat again, but when he found the governor declined com- 
municating anything toward a reconciliation, and that the 
majority of the present assembly were bent on pursuirg 
the measures he had before disapproved, after giving tl.e 
house his sentiments thereon, he again resigned his seat, 
and retired home heartilj^ concerned for the unhappy cir- 
cumstances of his country, which he could neither redress 
nor prevent, his salutary advice being rejected with con- 
tempt by those who formerly revered it. 

Thus Benjamin Franklin is again employed on another 
negotiation. It is alleged by those who have urged it most 
that his knowledge and interest will do great service to the 
colonies by obtaining some alleviation of those inconveni- 
ences we are subjected to by some late acts of parliament,' 
and the prevention of others with which we are threatened. 

Nothing, I think, should be omitted which can be done 
to prevent Richard Jackson (the other agent), being misled 
by a notion that the prosecution of these measures is agree- 
able to the people of tlie Province in general, for tho' 
the dissatisfaction of the people with the conduct of the 
Proprietai-y agents is very general, yet the de.-ire of pre- 
serving our constitution on its original basis is so deeply 
fixed that they would rather submit a little longer to these 
inconveniences, still being in hopes of redress; and they will 
not think those, their friends, who at this juncture risk 
the loss of it; and it was owing to a confidence in the ma- 
jority of the present assembly having more deliberation on 
this important subject that numbers were induced to de- 
cline pushing for a greater change than was made, and 
many of us omitted voting, as we have done for several 
years past; it is ten years since I voted at all. 

The aversion the Proprietaries and Franklin have to each 
other I am sensible will render the measures necessary 
for an amicable accommodation — difficult, yet, I hope, not 
impracticable, by the united assistance of such friends who 
may have some interest with them, if such who can influ- 
ence the agent could prevail with them in a proper man' 



The Contest With the Proprietors. 73 

ner to make such proposals as they think reasonable, and 
those, with such other friends as have weight with the 
Proprietaries, would engage them favorably to receive and 
calmly to consider what they may offer, and seriously to 
reflect on the importance of this crisis, by which the con- 
nection between them and the people seems likely to be de- 
termined. 

When Franklin reached England, in Decem- 
ber, 1704, he found no encouragement in the 
special mission to which he had been deputed, 
but much to do to protect his province and other 
provinces from the encroachments of King and 
Parliament. The movement that sent him was 
rather short-sighted and impulsive, and both he 
and his constituents were soon willing to cease 
to press it. Its main advantage was to secure 
at the English court an unrivaled diplomat to 
look after his country's interest in the trying 
pre-revolutionarv days. 

In a letter under date of April 2 2d, 1765, 
Israel Pemberton says: " Franklin has never 
presented his petition for change of government, 
and writes little about it." Richard Jackson, in 
a letter to the Speaker, says: "Dr. Fother- 
gill and Mr. Brown have had several conferences 
with Mr. Penn, which will, I hope, have good 
consequences, but the attention to matters of 
general concern at present engage all our care 



74 Quakers in the Revolution. 

and vigilance so mnch that we do not think it 
prudent to do anything relative to the particu- 
lar affairs of the Province." 



Preparing for the Revolution. 75 

CHAPTEE Y. 

PREPARING FOR THE REVOLUTION. 

The series of events which immediately pre- 
cipitated the Revolution began about the year 
1764. The English Government felt that the 
losses incurred by the protection of colonial 
frontiers and expenses of colonial management 
justified an attempt to replenish the national 
treasury by colonial taxes. With the American 
opposition to this claim the Pennsylvania Qua- 
kers sympathized, and yet their opposition was 
tempered by their traditional attitude of obedi- 
ence to the constituted government. 

Being the leading merchants of Philadelphia, 
the Navigation Acts, limiting their trade to Eng- 
lish countries and by English ships, were a great 
blow to their prosperity, yet they did not, nor 
did others, seriously protest. The prohibition of 
the exportation and manufacture of certain arti- 
cles was also submitted to as properly within the 
range of English control. They would have 
nothing to do with smuggling, even objecting to 
their members purchasing goods so imported. 

" Are Friends careful not to defraud the King 



76 Quakers in the Revolution, 

of his dues?" was regularly queried in every 
Monthly Meeting, and a negative answer 
brought down the disfavor of the church upon 
the offending parties. The early years of Eng- 
lish suffering, with the triumphant result of 
privileges gained by passive resistance to ob- 
jectionable laws and active obedience to others, 
had not been forgotten. The ruling spirit, de- 
veloped by almost a century of control, had 
made the Pennsylvania Friends more militant 
than their forefathers, but in their most repre- 
sentative members was the same deeply-rooted 
idea of obedience to every law which did not 
touch their consciences. They had none of the 
qualities of revolutionists. 

When in 1765, the Stamp Act was passed, 
Philadelphia vigorously entered into the move- 
ment against its enforcement. She drove away 
the officers, and agreed to absolute non-importa- 
tion of British goods as most likely to bring the 
home government to terms. Franklin, from 
England, counselled submission, but his voice 
was not heeded in the outbreak. 

Many Friends were in the movement. The 
names of over fifty of them were on the non-im- 
portation agreement, including Israel and James 
Pomberton, and other prominent members in the 



Preparing for the Revolution. 77 

meeting. There they naturally belonged. For 
nearly a century they had been supporting the 
pause of liberty against King and Proprietor. 
They held to a large extent the confidence of the 
people, and their merchants were in the best posi- 
tion to take an effective part. Moreover, an 
agreement not to import did not necessarily in- 
volve any disobedience to law, and was quite a 
Quaker method of resistance. So far as this 
was concerned there seems to have been general 
unanimity. 

They thought it necessary to explain to their 
London Friends how far they would go in the 
matter of resistance, and wrote as follows: 

To the Friends of the Meeting for Sufferings in London: 
The general discontent which hath appeared in several 
colonies on the imposition of duties for the purpose of rais- 
ing a revenue, hath sometime past been publickly known, 
and that the people have been uniting by various methods 
to avert the consequences of being thus taxed without 
their own consent. In Pennsylvania so large a number 
of the people are inclined to moderation that the public 
deliberations and measures have been concluded in such 
manner as to evidence our desires to convince our superiors 
of our resolutions to sue for redress in a manner becoming 
our inferior stations; but it was not without much difficulty 
a steady perseverance in these moderate measures was main- 
tained, and when it appeared that the Parliament, in their 
last sessions, were not likely to repeal the laws which oc- 
casioned such discontent here, the earnest importunity 
raised by many in Philadelphia to have some further steps 
taken so far prevailed that many of the merchants and tra- 



78 Quakers in the Revolution. 

ders in this city were induced to enter into an agreement 
not to import most kinds of the English manufactures until 
thes:e laws are repealed. This was thought by many a meas- 
ure which the circumstances of the people rendered neces- 
sary, as they were already too deeply indebted, and that 
by it more frugality and economy might be enforced and 
observed among us. The expediency of the measure being 
generally allowed, the particular terms of the agreement 
were not attended to with so much deliberation as it now 
appears was necessary; and thus numbers subscribed to 
them without considering the force and tendency of some 
of the articles; and a committee being necessary to con- 
duct this business, and many of the parties, having more 
confidence in P'riends than in others, nominated some of 
our brethren to be of that committee, and even went so 
far as to name some that were not there nor have since 
entered into their agreement, and some of those Friends 
who consented to it have declared their views to be the 
hope of prevailing by their advice to have such measures 
pursued as would be consistent with the public interest 
without violating the rights of individuals. Some months 
passed before anything occurred to show them the diffi- 
culty they had thus subjected themselves to; but by the 
arrival of a vessel here lately from Yarmouth, laden with 
malt, they have been brought to see and feel it. And the 
apprehensions we have that the conduct of our brethren 
may be misrepresented induces us, after weighty and de- 
liberate consideration, had at several meetings, and enquiry 
into the affair, to acquaint you. It appears that when this 
vessel arrived, and the merchant to whom she was con- 
signed applied to several of the committee for advice re- 
si)ecting the landing of the cargo, they informed him they 
thought he might without offense land it, but in a general 
meeting of the committee such a difficulty ensued that, 
contrary to the opinion of some of the Friends Avho were 
present, as they have informed us, it was decided to call 
a meeting of the inhabitants of the city in the State-house; 
at which meeting such resolutions were hastily taken as 
determined the captain to take his cargo from hence to 



Preparing for the Revolution. 79 



Ireland. Our monthly meeting happened before the cap- 
tain sailed, and the Friends who attended it, being deeply 
affected on the consideration of this afflicting case, and 
desirous of preventing if possible the evil consequences of 
it, appointed several of us to confer with our brethren who 
were of that committee, and afterwards to converse with 
the captain and merchant. The Friends of the committee 
appeared fully convinced of the imprudence of thus as- 
suming the authority to call together the people, the greater 
part of whom were incapable of judging prudently on a mat- 
ter of so great importance; and, therefore, they have been 
determined not to be drawn in again to assent to such a 
proposal. Our conference with the captain, we hoped, 
tended in some measure to remove the prejudice he might 
go away with against the people in general, as we as-sured 
him of the anxiety and pain Friends in general and the 
more considerate and judicious of all denominations were 
under on his account, and as we thought it not impractica- 
ble for him still to land his cargo he so far followed our 
advice as to apply again to the committee of merchants 
who met in pursuance of his desire, but, after receiving 
their answer and consulting with his merchant, he thought 
proper to go from hence with his cargo for Cork in Ire- 
land. There have been several meetings of the committee, 
and a general meeting of the parties to the agreement, at 
which resolutions have been taken which manifest the dan- 
gerous tendency of contributing to the support of such as- 
sociations, and, as some of those Friends who were on the 
committee have declared their disapprobation of these 
measures, and Friends at the monthly meeting of Phila- 
delphia generally united to advise their members wholly 
to withdraw from and keep out of them, we are in hopes 
such further occasion will be avoided as may subject us aa 
a religious society to any censure from our superiors, as we 
desire to approve ourselves both in prmciple and practice 
dutiful, affectionate and loyal subjects to the King, and 
peaceable members of civil society, firmly believing that as 
we live in that love which is graciously shed " abroad in 
our hearts through Jesus Christ," and renewed in us in 



80 Quakers in the Revolution. 

these times of probation, we shall be preserved on the true 
foundation and experience, " all things to work together for 
our good." 

To the influence of Friends is doubtless due 
the fact that the remonstrance of Pennsylvania 
was a moderate though firm protest against the 
Stamp Act, unaccompanied by any of the rioting 
which prevailed in most of the other colonies. 
The merchants of Philadelphia united in an ap- 
peal to their fellow merchants of London to use 
their influence to secure its repeal. This atti- 
tude probably, counted for more than the frantic 
attacks of Xew England. Indeed, as Dr. Poth- 
ergill writes, " Nothing has created so gTeat dif- 
ficulties to your friends or furnished your op- 
ponents with so many arguments against you as 
the tumultuous behavior of too many on your 
side of all ranks. The Parliament saw its 
authority not only rejected, but despised, op- 
posed and insulted. What difliculties has not 
this madness occasioned to all who endeavored 
to serve you?" Men of Anglo-Saxon blood find 
it difficult to retreat from an untenable position 
in the face of bluster, but are often open to fair 
and reasonable expostulation. It may be an in- 
teresting speculation to consider the results 
which would have followed if instead of hot 



Preparing for the Revolution. 81 

words and armed resistance, the encroachments 
of Britain had been met with passive refusal and 
dignified remonstrance. This method is success- 
ful in private life, and better achieves its re- 
sults than brag and threatenings. Perhaps it 
would be so in public affairs also. 

The American people were very determined. 
" Many of the people here and generally in the 
eastern provinces declare they will be content 
with nothing less than a repeal of the Act, or a 
suspension of its execution, and some foolishly 
boast of their ability and determination to oppose 
any force that may be sent to enforce it; to such 
a height of infatuation are they already ad- 
vanced," writes James Pemberton, then just 
elected to the Assembly by the city of Philadel- 
phia. It was the Presbyterian element which 
most thoroughly sympathized with the spirit of 
New England resistance, and against which Pem- 
berton had carried the election. His success in 
such a trying time was a pledge of the conserva- 
tism of Philadelphia. 

The " Stamp Act Congress," which met in 
Kew York just after the passage of the obnox- 
ious measure, issued most able addresses to King 
and Parliament, and a Declaration of Rights. 
!None of these suggested disloyalty, and yet ten 



82 Quakers in the Revolution. 

years before the outbreak of hostilities, the vio- 
lent men were threatening forcible resistance 
and growing confident of its success. James 
Pemberton was not exactly satisfied with the do- 
ings of the Congress. " The business of the late 
Congress in Xew York Avas not concluded with 
that concord and unanimity which the occasion 
required, and therefore I do not find much de- 
pendence is placed on the issue of their proceed- 
ings." 

AVliile Friends joined in the non-impoi*tation 
movement, the forcible ejectment of the King's 
officers was too great a stretch of disobedience to 
be encouraged. The responsible members pub- 
licly and privately advised their younger friends 
to keep out of the commotion, and the Yearly 
Meeting thought it a suitable time to revive 
George Fox's counsel of 1685: 

Whatever bustlings or troubles or tumults or outrages 
should rise in the world keep out of them; but keep in the 
Lord's power and in the peaceable truth that is over all, 
in which power you seek the peace and good of all men, 
and live in the love which God has shed abroad in your 
hearts through Jesus Christ, in which love nothing is able 
to separate you from God and Christ. 

The resistance of the Americans of all sorts 
prevailed, and the Stamp Act, after a life of 
about a year, w^as repealed. Pitt thundered 



Preparing for the Revolution. 83 

from his sick bed in the House of Commons, " I 
rejoice America has resisted." 

The London merchants were strenuous for re- 
peal, fearing not only the temporary destruction 
of their trade, but the industrial independence 
of America, and with a majority of over one 
hundred the Act went down. Great w^as the re- 
joicing in the colonies. William Pitt was the 
hero of the day, and many a statue was proposed 
in his honor. Even the King enjoyed a little 
brief popularity. 

Dr. Fothergill sent over to James Pemberton 

advance intelligence of the good news. 

By the clemency of the King, the steadiness, ability and 
application of the present ministry, the moderation and hu- 
manity of the House of Commons, I hope the Stamp Act 
is in a fair way to be repealed, your other difficulties re- 
moved, and your commerce restored to a better footing 
than ever. 

Yet he foresaw that the triumph of the Ameri- 
cans would not make for good feeling if they did 
not restrain themselves. 

From the iirompt impetuous temper of the Americans 
much is to be feared, unless those amongst them who are 
guided by reason and reflection immediately interpose. 
Demonstrations of joy carried beyond a certain point will 
be most certainly fatal to both countries, and no person 
can better serve them than by repressing them. 

If P[ittj has pleaded your cause most strenuously, don't 
therefore crown him King of America. If G[eorge] 



84 Quakers in the Revolution. 

G[renville] has opposed you to the utmost stretch of his 
abilities, don't consign him to be hanged in effigy at every 
town's end. 

So, forewarned, Pemberton and his friends set 
themselves to work to moderate the expressions 
of joy of the people. The Assembly sent a dig- 
nified declaration of their gratification to the 
King. The exuberance of the popular demon- 
strations of New England and New York was 
very much toned down in Philadelphia, and the 
Assembl.yman could write: 

The minds of the people of this Province are greatly set- 
tled, and a favorable prospect offers of a more firm union 
between us and the mother-country than iieretofore. Many 
essays were making toAvards erecting manufactures of dif- 
ferent kinds to which necessity seemed likely to compel. 
The spirit for it abates, and improvements in agriculture 
will take place, being most natural to the genius and situa- 
tion of the inhabitants where the price of labor is so high 
as with us. 

The Quaker method of resistance to the Stamp 
Act embraced quiet and legal opposition, dig- 
nified protest, and moderate expressions of grati- 
fication. 

Three men wrought together most unitedly in 
this matter, and in several similar ones in the ten 
years to come, — Franklin, Fothergill and Pem- 
berton. Franklin was considered by all to be 
extremely judicious and conservative. His sci- 



Preparing for the Revolution. 85 

entific attainments were the wonder of the world; 
his diplomatic skill was iinqiiestioned, and his 
qualities as a municipal and provincial legislator 
were unexcelled by any one since the death of 
Isaac Xorris. He was bitterly hated by the 
proprietary party, and everything to his dis- 
credit was made the most of. It was even re- 
ported that he had betrayed his country, and had 
advised the passage of the Stamp Act. He 
counselled submission, and secured a place as 
collector for a friend, but the charges of dis- 
loyalty are manifestly untrue. 

Pemberton wrote to his English friends, en- 
closing a memorial from " a number of sober and 
religious disposed Germans of the Society called 
Swingfelders," which appears to have been a tes- 
timony to Franklin's character, and asking his 
correspondents, Dr. Fothergill and Henton 
Brown, to give information of Franklin's assidu- 
ity in serving his constituents. They reply a 
few months later : 

We can safely aver, from our own knowledge as well as 
from the testimony of many persons here of undoubted 
character and reputation, that Benjamin Franklin was so 
far from proT)osing the stamp act, or joining with it in 
any manner, that he at all times opposed it, both in word 
and writing, tho' in vain, as neither his nor any other en- 
deavor could influence the then ministry to relinquish the 
design. 



86 Quakers in the Revolution. 



But if any doubt of his diligence or sincerity in this re- 
spect had remained, the evidence he gave before the House 
of Commons on the occasion of the bill for repealing this 
act was such as to remove every scruple of the kind. For 
the information he gave the House, the distinct, judicious 
and convincing proofs he laid before them of the impro- 
priety of the stamp act, we believe, had considerable in- 
fluence with the Parliament. 

In respect to the commission with which he was charged 
from the Province of Pennsylvania, we can assert of our 
own knowledge that he has endeavored, both by admitting 
friendly mediations and by pursuing more vigorous meas- 
ures when these proved unsuccessful, to discharge his duty 
most uprightly to his constituents. 

And it should rather be attributed to the singularly un- 
favorable position of affairs both at home and in America, 
than to the want of industry and address, that he has 
not hitherto succeeded in his negotiations. 

"We hope this attestation will fully satisfy Dr. Franklin's 
friends, and enable them to do his character that justice 
which we think his steady attachment to the interests of 
America in general, and of his own province in particular, 
deserves. 



We also find Pemberton in a friendly way ad- 
vising Franklin to write more frequently to the 
Committee on Correspondence of the Assembly, 
even if there is nothing to say, in order to show 
his activity and interest in his commission and 
to stop criticism. 

Dr. John Fothergill was a man to whom 
America owes a strong debt of gratitude for the 
work he attempted and partly accomplished in 
her cause. He was a Yorkshireman, a Quaker 



Preparing for the Revolution. 87 

hj birthright, a graduate in medicine of the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, who began practice in a 
humble way in London. His great abilities, his 
courtly manners, his fidelity to his profession, 
brought to him a most lucrative practice from 
the nobility and wealth of the capital. Though 
chronically overworked in his profession, his 
large public spirit kept him continually engaged 
in a variety of philanthropic and political move- 
ments of an unsectarian character. His access 
to the influential men of England, many of 
whom were his patients, gave him great oppor- 
tunities for advancing anything he had at heart. 
As one of the great botanists of his day he 
was brought into association with many Ameri- 
cans of note. John Bartram and Humphrey 
Marshall were his collectors. Owning the best 
stocked botanical gardens in the world, except 
only the Royal Gardens at Kew, he sought to 
introduce into his country every valuable plant 
from all over the world. His botanical interests 
constituted a strong tie with America. Another 
was his Quaker acquaintance, gained by the re- 
ligious travels of his father and brother, both 
ministers, in the colonies. Then he was for a 
long time a clerk of the Yearly Meeting, and a 
prominent member of the Meeting for Suffer- 



88 Quakers in the Revolution. 

ings. In this way he had abundant opportuni- 
ties for intimate acquaintance with American 
conditions and with English political tendencies, 
and used all for the furtherance of good under- 
standing and good will. With James Pem- 
berton as an ally in Philadelphia, and Franklin 
as a diplomatic go-between, the trio wrought 
at many an international problem, and essayed 
some that were too difficult for their solution. 

His most useful co-laborer was David Barclay, 
the grandson of the Apologist, and the two, with 
Franklin, as we shall see later, made an attempt, 
which for a time seemed hopeful, to settle the 
difficulties between the mother-country and the 
colonies. Franklin says of him : " I doubt 
whether there has ever existed a man more 
worthy than Dr. Fothergill of universal esteem 
and veneration." And again: " If we may esti- 
mate the goodness of a man by his disposition to 
do good, and his constant endeavors and success 
in doing it, I can hardly conceive that a better 
man has ever existed." Upon hearing of Dr. 
Fothergill's death, in 1781, he wrote to David 
Barclay: " I condole with you most sincerely on 
the loss of our dear friend. Dr. Fotliergill. I 
hope that some one who knew him well will do 
justice to his memory by an account of his Life 



Preparing for the Revolution. 89 

and character. He was a great doer of good. 
How much might have been done, and how much 
mischief prevented, if his, your and my joint en- 
deavors in a certain melancholy affair had been 
attended to." ^ It is one of the best testimonials 
to Franklin's character at this time that the es- 
teem was reciprocated. 

The following letter of James Pemberton to 
Dr. Fothergill will give an idea of the political 
condition of the Province after the repeal of the 
Stamp Act, and of the rivalry of the sects. It 
shows evidence of the growing rapprochement 
of the Friends and Episcopalians, which became 
pronounced in the few years immediately pre- 
ceding the Pevolution: 

I am unwilling to neglect this opportunity of transmitting 
thee some account of our present circumstances, though a 
minute detail of occurrences relating to our public affairs 
may be rather tedious than interesting. 



* The standing of Fothergill in Pennsylvania is shown by 
an abstract from a letter of Samuel Purviance, Jr., Sep- 
tember 10th, 1764. He says in reference to the activity of 
Friends in urging the abolition of proprietary government: 
" Last night, John Hunt, a famous Quaker preacher, ar- 
rived from London in order, it is believed, to give Friends 
a rap on the knuckles for their late proceedings; and it is 
said a brother of the famous Fothergill vdU immedi- 
ately follow on the same errand, tho' their great sticklers 
have, by numerous falsehood.-^, propagated a belief that 
their friends at home highly approve of their measures." 
— Shippen Letters, p. 206. 



00 Quakers in the Revolution. 



It gives the true friends to the Province much satisfaction 
to find our address, and those from the other colonies, on 
the repeal of the stamp act, were approved and well re- 
ceived, and that the conduct of the people has not furnished 
occasion of uneasiness to our friends or triumph to our op- 
ponents on your side, from which we flatter ourselves the 
ensuing session of Parliament may produce a further re- 
dress of our grievances; a repeal of the act prohibiting an 
emission of paper currency is an object of our particular 
attention. Long experience has given the most undeniable 
proofs of the advantage of that currency to the people of 
this Province in promoting cultivation, commerce, and de- 
fraying the exigencies of government, the Avant of which 
medium reduces the people to extreme difficulties to fulfill 
their contracts; the business of the lawyers is greatly in- 
creasing, plantations frequently selling by execution at less 
than one-half the value which they brought a few years 
past, and the complaints from all quarters daily increasing; 
the public debt accumulating to a great sum and no means 
to discharge it, but by adding to the taxes, which are al- 
ready very burdensome to the laborious part of the people; 
so that unless we are relieved in this matter our situation 
must inevitably be very distressing, and those of inferior 
circumstances fall under subjection to the power of the rich. 
Our assembly of this year have renewed their instructions 
to the agents, warmly to solicit this matter to the Parlia- 
ment, in which we hope they will be supported by the re- 
spectable merchants of your city, whose interest is inti- 
mately concerned therein. 

The sessions of the assembly of last year concluded satis- 
factorily. I have sent thee, per John Morton, a young man 
passenger in this ship, the minutes for thy amusement at 
a leisure hour. Our late election approached without much 
previous stirring on the part of the Presbyterian party, 
until a few weeks before the day, when some letters written 
by the stamp master of this city to London, said to be 
sent from thence, appeared in one of our public papers, in 
order to excite a clamor and rouse them on the occasion, 
but failed of answering all the purposes intended by the 



Preparing for the Revolution. 91 



publishers; the most considerate of the party, despairing 
of success, had given over an intention of moving, the false- 
hoods propagated against Franklin Vjeing cleared away, and 
the conduct of the assembly furnishing no fresh occasion 
for clamor. They at length concluded to attempt the 
change of one member in this country, Jos. Galloway, con- 
cerning whom they alleged he had written in favor of the 
stamp act; in opposition they set up Dickinson, his former 
opponent, which, it is said, was encouraged by a few of 
our friends, but in this scheme they failed much beyond 
their expectation, and my colleague of last year, who I 
thought a valuable member in the house, the' accounted to 
be of the proprietary part, refusing to serve, they prepared 
to keep Dickinson for a burgess in opposition to another. 
Lawyer Ross, but again failed, the latter being elected after 
a smart struggle, which may be attributed in some measure 
to the serviceable law we obtained last winter, which I 
wish to see confirmed by roj'al authority, as it will prevent 
a great deal of swearing and foreswearing and the shameful 
impositions to which our elections have been heretofore 
subject. 

The present assembly being, all but three, the same mem- 
bers as last year, met, pursuant to charter, on the 14th 
ulto., and proceeded on the business appearing necessary 
at that time, having first chosen a new speaker (Galloway), 
whose qualifications must be allowed superior to the former 
speaker (Fox), but as there appeared too much of a spirit 
of party, as I apprehended, 1 could not join therein; the 
choice has been an occasion of speculation among the peo- 
ple, but I hope will not be attended with much ill conse- 
quence; tho' I avoid mixing with the multitude in their 
discussion of political points, thinking it safest to remain 
unbiased in my judgment and endeavoring to pursue what I 
apprehend will promote the general good as far as I am 
capable to determine and may be assisted by wisdom su- 
perior to my own, which 1 find as necessary to be attended 
to in that station as in business which may be looked upon 
as of a more religious nature. 

The people of the increasing society (Presbyterians) who 



92 Quakers in the Revolution. 



have been of late very active in our political affairs, finding 
their forcible measures fail of success, begin now to make 
professions of regard and friendship, urging moderation and 
a union of the dissenters in opposition to the power of the 
established church, being greatly alarmed at the apprehen- 
sion of a bishop being fixed in America, which they foresee 
must tend to lessen their power and number, there being 
the utmost reason to expect many of their preachers will 
gladly embrace an opportunity of accepting a benefit at the 
expense of others or the public. 

The vast increase of these people upon the continent 
must in great measure be attributed to the too apparent 
neglect of the Church of England, who, to the dishonor 
of their profession, have so little regard to the morals of 
the persons they appoint to the office of clergymen. Had 
they been careful to send over men who had a due regard 
to the cause of religion, or at least such who are careful 
to support a moral character, and promoted the erecting 
of worship houses as the country increased in inhabitants, 
many of the present generation, whose fathers were of the 
Church of England, might have been prevented from being 
educated in the bigotry of Presbyterianism, and until the 
bishops are more in earnest to promote their society in 
these parts it will continue to make a poor figure; on the 
contrary a moderate care to employ men of sobriety and 
exemplary conversation will be the most rational human 
means of retarding the rapid progress of the others, who are 
indefatigable in promoting the cause of their sect, watching 
all opportunities of sending out the young preachers from 
the college of this city. New Jersey, and an academy in 
the lower counties, providing places for them to erect 
schools and meeting houses in all parts of the several prov- 
inces where they can hear they are wanted; and it must 
be allowed the synods are careful to promote such men who 
are at least careful in their moral conduct, by which means 
they obtain an influence in their neighborhood, and draw 
numbers to them who would prefer the Church of Eng- 
land as a more fashionable profession had they the op- 
portunity; others, again, are filled with zeal or passion, 



Preparing for the Revolution. 93 

thundering out anathemas, by which they captivate some 
and frighten others to believe them to be true ministers of 
the Gospel. 

When the Stamp Act was repealed, it was ac- 
companied by a declaration of right to lay fur- 
ther taxes of a similar nature. In the great joy 
and triumph of the repeal this Avas overlooked. 
But the ministry were determined not to allow 
America to forget that she was a subject bound 
by any laws which the parent country might 
choose to enact. Evidently there was no sym- 
pathy or aid to be looked for, and the best to be 
expected was neglect. William Logan, writing 
from London, Sixth month 21st, 1768, says: 

You may conquer the Indians, but that conquest which 
accompanies carnage and the ruin of a few helpless savages 
is inconsistent with the humanity which is the characteris- 
tic of a British soldier. Whatever misfortune you are in- 
volved in, you ^vill find no country less ready to assist you 
than the English; they despise and hate you, and I am apt 
to think that they would see your country depopulated, 
your trade ruined and themselves reduced to the greatest 
extremity rather than try to avert the misfortune. The 
Boston papers have been foolishly irritating, and have 
greatly hurt you, for the greatest number of the people 
in this metropolis are so ignorant of common geography 
that they often jumble Philadelphia, New York and Boston 
into towns of the same country, or else separate them into 
islands as far distant from each other as Minorca from 
Jamaica. 

Hence followed a succession of irritating and 
futile efforts to squeeze a little revenue from 



94 Quakers in the Revolution. 

America during the succeeding ten years, till 
America was brought to the point of fighting. 
The Philadelphia Friends were too clear-sighted 
not to be aware of the inevitable drift. Again 
and again Pemberton and Fothergill, in perfect 
sympathy with each other, urged the objections 
to the foolish course of the English Ministry, 
and the hot-headed and illegal resistance of many 
of the colonists. The meetings were insistent in 
advising obedience to laws which did not touch 
conscience, and restiaint and moderation in pro- 
test. They had all they could do to keep their 
younger members in line, and many broke away. 
Nor do the Friends seem to have lost their politi- 
cal influence in the state, but down to the very 
dissolution of the Assembly, in 1776, their spirit 
was felt in its conservative course. 

Through these pre-Revolutionary days no 
man's influence was more important than that of 
John Dickinson. He was the son of a planter 
whose home was on the eastern shore of Mary- 
land, a Quaker by several generations of inheri- 
tance. The father was ambitious that his boys 
should be well educated, and, apparently for this 
purpose, bought a large estate near Dover, in 
Delaware, and removed there in 1740, when 
John was eight years old. Here he became 



Preparing for the Revolution. 95 

judge of the county court and a man of promi- 
nence. For the next ten years the boy was un- 
der the care of a tutor, who filled his mind with 
high ideals and aided him to secure an English 
style remarkably simple and elegant and effec- 
tive, which no one of that day of involved 
phrases, except perhaps Franklin, equalled, and 
which made him easily " the Penman of the 
Revolution/' 

Ten years then followed of close historical and 
legal study, in the Philadelphia office of the first 
lawyer of his day, in the Inns of Court in Lon- 
don, and again in Philadelphia in his own mod- 
est start at practice. His w^ell-trained, logical 
mind, his conservative and orderly tendencies, 
his Quaker associations, made him a valuable re- 
cruit to the cause of moderate resistance which 
distinguished the Pennsylvania colonists. There 
is a basis of legality in the efforts of the Quaker 
colony, easily distinguishable from this time for- 
ward, which is due to his training and natural 
proclivities, which especially marks it when con- 
trasted with the more impetuous appeals to the 
rights of man which the Xew Englanders made 
the grounds of opposition to English encroach- 
ments. 

His association with Friends was probably, at 
least in early life, not much more than nominal. 



96 Qiial'ers in the Ecrolufion. 

AVe do not find him interested even in the busi- 
ness affairs of the Society, and, what was some- 
thing of a test in those days, his letters even to 
his mother were not written in Quaker hinguage. 
He was a soldier through the Revolution, yet 
there is apparently no record of his " disown- 
mcnt," though that fate befell many of his fel- 
lows, nor did he apparently have anything to do 
with the '* Free Quakers." Yet in his later life 
he was closely associated with Friends, and was 
probably a member. The son of his friend, 
Chief Justice Eead, writes of him : " I have a 
vivid impression of the man, tall and spare, his 
hair white as snow, his face uniting with the 
severe simplicity of his sect, a neatness and ele- 
gance peculiarly in keeping with it; his man- 
ners a beautiful emanation of the creat Christian 
principle of love, with that gentleness and afFec- 
tionateness which, whatever may be the cause, 
the Friends, or at least individuals among them, 
exhibit more than others, combining the polite- 
ness of a man of the world familiar with society 
in its most polished forms with conventional 
canons of behavior. Truly he lives in my mem- 
ory as the realization of my beau-ideal of a gen- 
tleman." " 

* Still§'s " Life of John Dickinson." 



Preparing for the Revolution. 97 

John Dickinson's main interests were political 
rather than legal, and for a political career he 
had equipped himself by a painstaking prepara- 
tion in historical and logical study. In 1760 
he was made a member of the Delaware Assem- 
bly, and two years later, at the age of 30, of the 
Pennsylvania Assembly. 

The great question then agitating the people 
was the conduct of the Proprietors. In a spirit 
of disgaist at their haggling policy the Assembly 
had brought in resolutions petitioning the King 
to take the government upon himself. The peo- 
ple appeared nearly unanimous for this measure. 
The Quakers were generally in their favor. The 
Presbyterians for once sided with their peaceful 
opponents, because they felt the difficulties of 
defending the frontiers while the Proprietary es- 
tates were exempt from taxation. It required 
some courage for even the veteran Isaac Xorris 
to stem the tide. But to the young student of 
history and law, with his place to make with the 
people, there was not a little fortitude needed to 
espouse the unpopular cause. In an elegant and 
cogent speech he made, not a defence of the Pro- 
prietors, whose conduct he admitted to be inde- 
fensible, but a plea against the worse evils of 
royal government to which they were exposing 



98 Quakers in the Revolution. 

themselves. He pleaded for the old charter and 
the liberties it gave them, and asked if in any 
of the royal colonies there was more real free- 
dom. He hinted at a possible church establish- 
ment and a standing army, and pertinently asked 
whether the Crown had not supported the Pro- 
prietors in their worst claims. " In seeking a 
precarious, hasty, violent remedy for the present 
partial disorder we are sure of exposing the whole 
body to danger." 

Few would say in the light of following events 
that Dickinson was wrong. The Proprietors 
were better masters than the King would have 
been. So far, however, as immediate effect was 
concerned, the virtues of Korris and the argu- 
ment of Dickinson, who afterwards became his 
son-in-law, were futile. The Assembly adopted 
the resolutions by an overwhelming vote, and 
sent Franklin to England. Dickinson lost his 
place in the subsequent election, and did not 
regain it till 1770, when the people began to ap- 
preciate the wisdom of his position. 

When the attempt was made to impose the 
Stamp Act upon America, John Dickinson found 
himself in close accord with popular sentiment. 
He framed the plan of protest which was adopted 
by the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, appears to 



Preparing for the Revolution. 99 

have been the author of its " Declaration of 
Eights " and " Petition to the King," and also 
a draft from which the resolutions adopted by 
the Assembly of Pennsylvania were largely 
taken. A few weeks later he aroused public 
sentiment by a vigorous protest, published 
anonymously. "Rouse yourselves, therefore, my 
dear countrymen. Think, oh ! think of the end- 
less miseries you must entail upon yourselves 
and your country by touching the pestilential 
cargoes that have been sent to you. Destruc- 
tion lurks within them. To receive them is 
death: it is worse than death — it is slavery. If 
you do not — and I trust heaven you will not — use 
the stamped papers, it will be necessary to con- 
sider how you are to act." He wrote the Liberty 
Song, which went over the country like fire, and 
which contains at least one line that will never 
be forgotten, the watchword of the Revolution 
— " By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall." 

During the ten years to come his pen was not 
idle. No other person in America gave a greater 
stimulus to resistance, and no other person 
showed so clearly the lines on which resistance 
was justifiable, and likely to be successful. The 
crown of his reputation and influence was 
reached by the publication of the " Farmer's Let- 



100 Quakers in the Revolution, 

ters " in 1768. These are the appeals of a states- 
man, not a demagogue, to conserve the liberties 
which Englishmen have always considered their 
due, by methods which Englishmen have foi\nd 
successful in the past. Unqualifiedly rebuking 
the tyranny which had attempted to impose on 
America the duties on paper, glass and tea, he ap- 
peals to England to meet the colonies in a con- 
ciliatory spirit, and remove the obnoxious taxes. 
With a veiled hint at the possibility of ultimate 
armed resistance, he yet counsels his brethren 
to carry on their opposition by legal and mod- 
erate, if firm measures. " The cause of liberty 
is a cause of too much dignity to be sullied by 
turbulence and tumult. It ought to maintained 
in a manner suitable to her nature. Those who 
engage in it should breathe a sedate yet fervent 
spirit, animating them to actions of prudence, 
justice, modesty, bravery, humanity and mag- 
nanimity." 

The letters were the legal justification of 
American resistance, and ultimately of the 
Revolution. Dickinson was not prepared for in- 
dependence in 1 776, and refused to sign the Dec- 
laration. He did not believe that the resources 
of constitutional resistance were exhausted, and 
ids conservative nature shrank from this first dis- 



Preparing for the Revolution. 101 

loyal act to the mother country. This hesita- 
tion, due to his legal studies and Quaker habits, 
has been the occasion of serious charges against 
his courage and sincerity. It has obscured the 
fact that for the preceding eight years he had 
been the acknowledged patriot leader, the most 
important man in America, and that " in the lit- 
erature of that struggle his position is as promi- 
nent as Washington in war, Franklin in diplo- 
macy, and Morris in finance." * He v/as only 
thirty-five when the letters were written. 

They were translated into French, and helped 
to mould the thought of that rapidly-fermenting 
country. They were reprinted in England and 
had a marked effect on ministry and people alike. 
They were the guides of American freedom, 
and brought down upon their author the thanks 
of all the leaders in the cause, and Hancock, 
Adams and AVarren were appointed by the Bos- 
tonians a committee to express the obligations of 
Boston to him. During those days no serious 
movement was made in the colonies without con- 
sultation with him. He probably conceived the 
opinion that his influence could steer the whole 

* Paul Leicester Ford in the Preface to Dickinson's Writ- 
ings. 



102 Quakers in the Eevolution. 

revolutionary moA'ement bv legal and peaceful 
means to ultimate success. 

AVliile not much of a Quaker he undoubtedly 
represented and dignified the Quaker idea of the 
preserA^ation of liberty. He represented also 
their absolute loss of influence and power which 
coincided Avitli the Declaration. 

The Boston Tea Party had its counterpart in 
Philadelphia. The firm to which the East India 
Company had consigned their tea was a firm of 
Friends, Thomas and Isaac Wharton. They 
write : 

At ten o'clock on the morning of the 27th (December, 
1773) a very numerous meeting of the inhabitants deter- 
mined that the tea should not be landed, and allowed Cap- 
tain Ayres till next day to furnish himself with provisions, 
etc., on condition that his ship should depart from his then 
situation, and proceed down the river, some of the com- 
mittee going down to the ship with Captain Ayres, in order 
to see the first step performed. . . . T. and I. W. with 
I. B. oft'ered to advance Captain Ayres such a sum of money 
as he should need. . . . Thou wilt observe as the ship was 
not entered in our port the cargo was not unloaded, either 
the property of the Honorable East India Company or that 
of any private person. 

In Boston they resented the suggestion of 
Dickinson that as a matter of conciliation they 
should pay for the tea. In Philadelphia, equally 
unwilling to land it, they sent it back, loaning 
the captain sufiicient to see him through. 



Preparing for the Revolution. 103 

The Friends had been previously advised to 
keep out of the excitement. James Pemberton 
writes on Tenth month 30th, 1773, to several 
London correspondents: 

By the ships now about sailing for London you will doubt- 
less have intelligence of the uneasiness raised in the minds 
of the people here, and the measures they have taken to 
manifest it, on an account being received of the intentions 
of the East India Company to import a quantity of tea 
to this and some others of the colonies, and I apprehend 
it will give you some satisfaction and may not be improper 
to inform you of the part our Society has acted on this 
occasion, there being many among us concerned in trade, 
and some not sufficiently on their guard to act consistent 
with our religious professions, and, therefore, too liable 
sometimes to fall in with the popular outcry. It, therefore, 
became our concern, as soon as there was an appearance 
of ferment rising among the people, to collect the overseers 
of our three monthly meetings in order to confer on the 
measures most prudent and seasonable, to communicate 
suitable advice to our members, who all concurring in senti- 
ment, they agreed to call in to a further conference an ad- 
ditional number of Friends. For this purpose they ad- 
journed to meet the next evening, when, unanimity pre- 
vailing, it was concluded to give an invitation to all the 
members of our Society to collect at one of our meeting 
houses, and that such advice as had heretofore been given 
should be revived and such endeavors used as might be 
likely to unite us in judgment and produce consistency of 
conduct. 

This meeting, which consisted of the greatest part of 
Friends of this city, happened on the evening before the 
day appointed for the citizens to collect at the State house, 
and on that account was the more seasonable. When 
Friends came together, the occasion of their being called 
was briefly opened. The advice of our ancient friend, 



104 Quakers in the Revolution. 

George Fox, was read, also the epistle from your Meeting 
of Sufferings in the year 1769, also the cautionary minute 
of our last yearly meeting. These were enforced by some 
judicious observations of divers Friends exciting to a due 
consideration of the nature of our religious profession, 
which requires us to keep quiet and still, both in respect 
to conversation and conduct, on such public occasions, 
which tended to unite us in sentiment in such manner that 
Friends separated well satisfied Avith their coming together, 
and manifested it by their conduct next day, there not be- 
ing one, that I have heard, of any account in the Society 
who assembled at the State house, and the number there 
collected was much less than was expected. 

Although we are not insensible of the encroachments of 
powers, and of the value of our civil rights, yet in matters 
contestable we can neither join with nor approve the meas- 
ures which have been too often proposed by particular per- 
sons, and adopted by others, for asserting and defending 
them, and such is the agitation of the minds of those who 
are foremost in these matters it appears in vain to inter- 
fere. 

The first Continental Congress met in Carpen- 
ters' Hall, Philadelphia, in September, 1774. It 
was a body which breathed resistance to demands 
which almost every one considered unreasonable 
and oppressive, but it w^as not a revolutionary 
body. " Xo such thing as independence is de- 
sired by any thinking man in America," wrote 
Washington, and John Adams had pledged even 
refractory Massachusetts to a similar idea. 
" That there are any who pant after independ- 
ence is the greatest slander on the Province." 

The man who had most to do in preparing 



Preparing for the Revolution. 105 

Pennsylvania for this Congress was Charles 
Thomson. He had been the head of the Quaker 
school, " the-man-who-tells-the-truth " of the In- 
dians; and now began that Revolutionary career 
which, as Secretary of the Continental Congress, 
made him almost invaluable to the patriot cause. 
He knew the Friends well, though not himself 
a member with them. He knew that some of 
them could not be touched by any revolutionary 
impulses, but others, who were men of influence 
in politics and society, were almost essential to 
the success of the cause into which, with impul- 
sive energy, he had thrown himself. Paul 
Revere had come on from Boston to enlist the 
aid of Pennsylvania in a radical movement. The 
New York '' Sons of Liberty " had invited corre- 
spondence, and a meeting was to be held in reply 
to it. Thomson had the vigorous aid of Thomas 
Mifflin, who, though a well-to-do Quaker mer- 
chant of Philadelphia, afterwards won distinc- 
tion as a general in the war and as Governor of 
Pennsylvania. The moderate and philosophical 
Dickinson must of course be secured, and Thom- 
son tells, in a letter * still in existence, how he 
used Dickinson's influence to bring the Quakers 

* This may be seen in the appendix to Dr. Stille's " Life 
of John Dickinson." 



106 Quakers in the Revolution. 

into line. It was arranged that Thomson and 
Mifflin should make fiery and radical speeches in 
favor of aiding Boston, and that Dickinson 
should then follow in his favorite role of modera- 
tor and originator of policy. The plan worked 
perfectly, the more so perhaps as Thomson 
fainted in the midst of his fervent oration, and 
so could not tell afterwards what Dickinson had 
said. How^ever, the sympathetic answer to Bos- 
ton was carried in confusion, and the scheme 
worked out as desired. 

By further plotting, a delegation of Pennsyl- 
vanians was sent to the Continental Congress. 
But still Pennsylvania was conservative, and the 
Assembly, not under the influence of Thomson 
and his friends, sent their speaker, Galloway, 
a loyalist, as the head of the delegation, with 
Dickinson, Mifflin, Samuel Rhoads and foui 
others. Dickinson wrote all the important ad 
dresses. 

Much was said by Thomson of the desirabilit;^ 
of taking such a prudent course as to carry the 
Quaker influence with the revolutionists, for this 
influence would also bring the Germans into line 
and make the Province unanimous for liberty. 
Nothing, however, could move the 3<3i-iou«. 



Preparing for the Revolution. 107 

Friends who controlled the Yearly Meeting, and 
Thomson must have known it. 

The movement was too evidently leading on to 
anarchy and war, and they wonld have nothing 
to do with it. The following minute shows the 
rigidity of their position: 

At a Meeting for Sufferings, held at Philadelphia, the 15th 
day of the Twelfth month, 1774: 

After a considerable time spent in a weighty considera- 
tion of the afflicting state of affairs and the late proceedings 
of the assembly of Pennsylvania in approving the resolves 
and conclusions of the Congress held in this city in the 
Ninth and Tenth months last, which contain divers resolu- 
tions very contrary to our Christian profession and princi- 
ples, and as there are several members of our religious so- 
ciety who are members of that assembly, some of whom, 
we have reason to apprehend, have either agreed to the 
late resolves, which are declared to be unanimous, or not 
manifested their dissent in such a manner as a regard to 
our Christian testimony would require of them, being a 
danger of such being drawn into further inconsistencies of 
conduct in their public stations, the following Friends are 
desired to take an opportunity of informing them of the 
trouble and sorrow they brought on their brethren, who are 
concerned to maintain our principles on the ancient founda- 
tion, and to excite them to greater watchfulness, etc., to 
avoid agreeing to proposals, resolutions or measures so in- 
consistent with the testimony of truth. 

James Pemberton, in a private letter, also em- 
phasizes the same view: 

Philadelphia, Eleventh month 6th, 1774. 
American affairs are, I conclude, now become the sub- 
ject of general attention in Great Britain, and I have no 



108 Quak-crs in the Ecvoluiion. 



doubt that many of our brethren are anxiously concerned 
for the preservation of Friends in a conduct consistent with 
our Christian profession and principles amidst the commo- 
tions which prevail among the people. The troubles which 
had begun while thou wast among us have been gradually 
increasing, until they are now come to a very alarming and 
serious crisis; the unM'arrantable conduct of the people in 
Boston last fall has brought upon them a severe chastise- 
ment in consequence of the measures adopted by the Parlia- 
ment of Great Britain; this has alarmed all the colonies, 
who apprehend their civil privileges invaded; a Congress of 
deputies from all the provinces between Nova Scotia and 
Georgia has been lately held in this city, which, after sit- 
ting more than six weeks, have formed such resolves and 
conclusions as, some of us fear, will be likely to increase 
our dilliculties, unless, by the interposition of Providence, 
some way should be opened for a reconciliation. The peo- 
ple in New England have taken recourse to arms, and 
seem only to be waiting for a plausible opportunity of mak- 
ing use of them; hitherto the inhabitants of Boston have 
conducted themselves as peaceably as could be expected un- 
der the circumstances, and considering the temper of the 
people. 

The conduct of the people in this and some of the 
other provinces can not be vindicated, but such is the 
spirit prevailing that all endeavors to bring them to a cool, 
dispassionate way of thinking and acting have been un- 
available; so that Friends can do little more than exert 
their inlluence to persuade the members of our Society to 
keep out of these bustles and commotions, and this has 
occasioned no small care and labor, but has been so far 
of service that I hope it may be said we are generally clear; 
tho' there have been instances of some few who claim a 
right of membership with us that have not kept Avithin 
such limits and bounds as we could wish. 

On the other hand, it would be a proof of wisdom in 
those concerned in government on your side at least to 
suspend the exercise of a poAver, the right of which is not 
admitted by the colonists and is at least doubtful. Should 



Prepariny for the Revolution, 100 

the adminiKtration pursue further rigorous measures it 
seems too likely that there will be much bloodshed in these 
colonies. 

But there is no doubt that there were other 
Friends, how many it is probably impossible to 
ascertain, who, while not willing to join Mifflin 
and Dickinson in armed resistance, were in 
hearty sympathy with the Continental Congress, 
and in the eyes of the public represented the 
Quaker political influence. They were in the 
Assembly, and in the official stations through the 
counties. Government was theirs by the inheri- 
tance of nearly a century. They swayed the 
habits of thought of their constituents, and were 
greatly respected in every social and civil func- 
tion. Many of them were of that class which 
modern writers call Quaker — the class which, 
after 1750, had filled the Assembly, and man- 
aged public affairs, except in the matter of war, 
on Quaker lines, but who were not members of 
the Society of Friends. These were the people 
that Thomson hoped to carry with him into the 
Revolution, and which the precipitancy of Mas- 
sachusetts seemed in danger of estranging. They 
were patriotically attached to liberty, and had 
wrought for it effectually in the past against the 
encroachments of Proprietor as well as King, but 



1 10 Quak-crs in fJie Rcrohifiou. 

robollion wn?; to thorn a ilaiiiZ'orows \vonl, and 
rospoot (ov oxistiiii:- authoritv \vas dooply in- 
arainod in tlioir naturo. 

Thov ooiiKl not soo tlioir ihitv qnito as the 
mooting advisod, bnt thi^v wishod ttMnporatoly to 
bring tho Kini:- to hi< son<o<, and abato tho ex- 
oiteniont o\ tho poopU\ Tho patriots Avore too 
precipitate. They, in ITT(\ withont good rea- 
son, destroyed Penn's Charter of 1 701, and set 
\\\\ against the adviee o\ Oiekinson, Idunnson 
and MitVlin, a revoUitionary government, of 
whieh Franklin Avas the controlling spirit, and 
a certain anionnt of Qnaker sympathy was lost 
to the side of independence. 

While the Philadelphia Kriends were striving 
in 1774 to be a calming intlnence in the atfairs 
of the Province and of the Continental C\>ngress. 
some of their Knglish brethren were working 
with their ministry to avert the threatened war 
by timely concession. 

Before the resnlts of the Congress had reached 
England, Pavid Barclay and Or. Fothergill had 
asked Franklin to prepare a list of American de- 
mands, making it as moderate as possible, which 
they wonld present to men intlnential in the 
Alinistry as a basis for reconciliation. As a re- 
snlt of this reqnest Franklin made out seventeen 



Prf'/fjO/riruj for the. lic/coluixon. Ill 

f:oriditJorj-: a-; a \)<)~~\\)\('. ba-;!-; for the roBtoration 
of good feeling, 'i'he first one was, "The tea 
destroyed to be jjaid for," and the seventeenth, 
"All powers of internal legislation in the col- 
onies to f>e disclaimed by Parliament." The 
" Hints," as they were called, were the g^round- 
work of a series of discuHsions, first within the 
trio of j-^ear^ernaker-, and tlien gradually extend- 
ing the circle of those interested, until they in- 
cluded the moderate men of influence in the 
government, like Lord Howe. Franklin says: 

Thf; doctor [Fothergill] called on ma and told me he 
had communicated them, and with them had verbally given 
my argumentH in Kupport of them, to Lord Dartmouth, 
who after connideration Fiad told him H^>me of them ap- 
peared reanonable, Vjut others were inadmiHhible or im- 
practicable; that having occasion to frequently see the 
Speaker, he had alno communicated them to him, as he 
found him very anxiouH for a reconciliation; that the 
Speaker had haid that it would be very humiliating to 
Jiritain to be obliged to submit to such terms; but the 
doct/jr told him she had been unjust and ought to bear the 
consequenceK and alter her conduct; that the pill might be 
bitter, but it would be salutary, and rnu>;t be swallowed; 
that these were the sentiments of impartial men after 
thorough consideration and full information of all circum- 
stances; and that sooner or later these or similar measures 
must be followed, or the empire would be divided and 
iTiincd. 

Having thus committed himself to the 
" Hints " in speaking to officials, Dr. Fothergill 
was anxious to have Franklin abate some of the 



112 Quakers in the Revolution. 

most objectionable demands. '' The good doctor, 
with his nsnal phihuithropv, expatiated on the 
miseries of war; that even a bad peace was pre- 
ferable to the most successful war; that America 
was growing in strength, and whatever she might 
be obliged to submit to at present, she w^ould in 
a few years be in a condition to make her own 
terms/' But Franklin says he told them his own 
property was in a seaport town, and the British 
might burn it when they pleased; that America 
had no intention to abate her terms; that Eng- 
land must be careful of the mischief she did, for 
'' sooner or later she would be obliged to make 
good all damages wdth interest. The doctor 
smiled, as I thought, with some approbation of 
my discourse, passionate as it was, and said he 
would certainly repeat it to-morrow to Lord Dart- 
mouth." 

The ministry was foolishly inflexible, and 
Fothergill and Barclay finally gave it up. Frank- 
lin was about to leave for America. He says: 
'^ I met them by their desire at the doctor's house, 
when they desired me to assure their friends 
from them that it was now their fixed opinion 
that nothing could secure the privileges of 
America but a firm, sober adherence to the terms 
of the association made at the Congress, and that 



Preparing for the Revolution. 113 

the salvation of English liberty depended now on 
the perseverance and virtue of America." 

In the midst of the negotiations Dr. Fothergill 
writes to his friend, James Pemberton : 

London, First month 3d, 1775. 

I am afraid they will pursue, in one shape or other, the 
same destructive plan,— at least it appears so to me,— that 
no abatement of any consequence will be made — no ma- 
terial alterations or concessions; of course, if you are as 
resolute as we seem, unhappily, to be firm, dissolution must 
follow. It will not be long before this will be manifest; 
America will then know what she has to expect. For my 
own part, having from my early infancy been attentive to 
America, more than many others, — the several visits of my 
father to that extensive country, of my brother, of my 
most valued friends — the acquaintance I have had with 
some of the most sensible, intelligent, judicious persons in 
that country, of every party, denomination, province and 
situation,— I cannot give up on slight grounds the opinions 
I have formed of them, of their rights, and of their power 
likewise. To say what these opinions are is unnecessary, 
because they are unavailing, as they are opposite to the 
sentiments of the generality, who, being ignorant of what 
America is, or by whom inhabited — looking no higher, no 
further, than the confined limits of a decaying empire, 
think with contempt of every one who pleads for freedom. 

But we know not what is for the best. We should not, 
perhaps, be better if we grew greater; it seems to be the 
will of Providence that after we have humbled the pride 
of the mo.st potent>houses in Europe, we should be humbled 
likewise by our own selves in our turn. Had our greatest 
enemies the direction of our counsels they could not drive 
us to a more dangerous precipice than that to which we 
seem hastening with a judicial blindness. 

David Barclay sent advance accounts of the 
negotiations to James Pemberton. He went. 



114 Quakers in the Revolution. 

over the whole series of efforts to find a basis for 
reconciliation, and liis account closely agrees 
with Franklin's. He also practically gives up 
the case, and hopes America w^ill unitedly con- 
tinue her resistance by peaceful measures. He 
warns Philadelphia Friends not to lay much 
stress on a few concessions granted by Lord 
Xorth, which are, he says, for the purpose of di- 
viding the Americans, and on behalf of " your 
best friend's love " rather chides them for show- 
ing a disposition to parade their loyalty at the 
expense of others, in an address of their Meeting 
for Sufferings of First month 24th, 1775: " The 
declaration of our religious and peaceable prin- 
ciples everybody must approve, and there on that 
ground your best friends wish you to remain." 
The address hardly seems open to the objection 
he makes. It is a radical declaration of opposi- 
tion to the w^hole revolutionary movement. 
Fothergill and Barclay seem to have favored this 
movement while it adopted only peaceful meth- 
ods, and so, we apprehend, did a great many of 
the Friends of Philadelphia, but the Meeting for 
Sufferings objected to the illegalities and excite- 
ments wdiich Thomson was nursing, as unneces- 
sary, for was there not the Assembly, elected 
yearly, and expressing the popular will, through 



Preparing for the Revolution. 115 

wliich all remonstrances could be made in proper 
order ? They knew, and the revolutionar j party 
knew as well, that Pennsylvania was not at this 
time ready for radical actions, and that only by 
irregular and non-representative bodies could it 
be brought into the column for independence. 

They stood their ground against illegality, as 
afterwards they did against w^ar, and expressed 
it jDlainly as follows: 

Having considered with real sorroAv the unhappy contest 
between the legislature of Great Britain and the people of 
these colonies, and the animosities consequent thereon, we 
have, by repeated public advice and private admonitions, 
used our endeavors to dissuade the members of our religious 
society from joining with the public resolutions promoted 
and entered into by some of the people, which, as we ap- 
prehended, so we now find, have increased contention and 
produced great discord and confusion. 

The divine principle of grace and truth which we profess 
leads all who attend to its dictates to demean ourselves as 
peaceable subjects, and to discountenance and avoid every 
measure tending to excite disaffection to the King as su- 
preme magistrate, or to the legal authority of his govern- 
ment, to which purpose many of the late political writings 
and addresses to the people appear to be calculated. We 
are led by a sense of duty to declare our entire disapproba- 
tion of them, their spirit and temper, being not only con- 
trary to the nature and principles of the gospel, but de- 
structive of the peace and harmony of civil society, dis- 
qualifying men in these times of difficulty for the wise and 
judicious consideration and promotion of such measures as 
would be most effectual for reconciling differences or ob- 
taining the redress of grievances. 

From our past experience of the clemency of the King 
and his royal ancestors, we have ground to hope emd believe 



116 Quakers in the Bevolidion. 

that decent and respectful addresses from those who are 
vested with legal authority, representing the prevailing dis- 
satisfactions and the cause of them, would avail towards 
obtaining relief, ascertaining and establishing the just rights 
of the people, and restoring the public tranquillity; and 
we deeply lament that contrary modes of proceeding have 
been pursued, which have involved the colonies in confu- 
sion, appear likely to produce violence and bloodshed, and 
threaten the subversion of the constitutional government, 
and so that liberty of conscience, for the enjoyment of 
which our ancestors were induced to encounter the mani- 
fold dangers and difficulties of crossing the seas and of set- 
tling in the wilderness. 

We, therefore, incited by a sincere concern for the peace 
and welfare of the country publickly declare against every 
usurpation of power and authority in the opposition of laws 
and government, and against the combinations, insurrec- 
tions, conspiracies and illegal assemblies, and as we are 
restrained from them by conscientious discharge of our duty 
to Almighty God, by whom kings reign and princes decree 
justice, we hope through His assistance and favor to be 
enabled to maintain our testimony against any requisitions 
which may be made of us, inconsistent with our religious 
principles and the fidelity we owe to the king and his gov- 
ernment as by law established, earnestly desiring the re- 
storation of that harmony and concord which have hitherto 
united the people of these provinces and been attended 
by the divine blessing on their labors. 

If this address seems "unnecessarily loyal, we 
have only to compare it with another issued six 
months later by the Continental Congress: "At- 
tached as we are to your Majesty's person and 
government with all the devotion that principle 
and affection can inspire, connected with Great 
Britain with the strongest ties which can unite 



Preparing for the Revolution. 117 

societies, and deploring every event tliat tends 
in any degree to weaken them, we solemnly as- 
sure yonr Majesty that we most ardently desire 
that the former happiness between her and these 
colonies may be restored," etc. In fact, at this 
stage of proceedings everybody, except a few of 
the most hot-headed, professed, most of them 
honestly, perfect loyalty. Events came to a 
crisis very rapidly immediately after this. 

Notice also the following letter, signed by a 
great fighter, and representing the views of a 
military company: 

Chester County, September 25th, 1775. 

Whereas, some persons, evidently inimical to the liberty 
of America, have industriously propagated a report that 
the military associations of this county, in conjunction with 
the military associations in general, intend to overturn the 
Constitution by declaring an independency, in connection 
with which they are aided by this committee and the board 
of commissioners and assessors with the arms now making 
for this county, and as such a report could not originate 
but among the worst of men, for the worst of purposes, 
this committee have, therefore, thought proper to declare, 
and they do hereby declare, their abhorrence even of an 
idea so pernicious in its nature, as they ardently wish for 
nothing more than a happy and speedy reconciliation, on 
constitutional principles, Avith that state from whom they 
derive their origin. 

By order of the Committee, 

Anthony Wayne, Chairman. 



118 Quakers in the Kerolution. 

Dr. Fotliergill gives tliein the following ad- 
vice, wise from their standpoint : 

" We need not suggest the necessity Friends are under 
on your side, to act -with the greatest circumspection, 
neither to incline so far to the fiery popular side which like 
many amongst us led by those unfit directors, Pride and 
Passion, -would sacrifice every substantial benefit in life, 
nor on the other hand, lean so much to the inflated vapors 
of arbitrary dictates as to yield assent to its encroachments 
on everything that is valuable to mankind." " I think it 
will be your greatest safety and wisdom to keep close to 
one another — neither to relax your care one over another, 
nor lean to the violent, nor to join the obsequious. For 
all in this life is at stake, life, liberty and property." 
" If America relaxes both you and we are all undone. 1 
wish Friends would studiously avoid everything adverse 
either to administration here on one side or Congress on 
the other. Submission to the prevailing power must 
be your duty. The prevailing power is the gen- 
eral voice of America." " Mind your own business, and 
neither court unworthily the favor of your superiors on 
this side, nor oppose with vehemence the party which 
steps forAvard in the protection of your liberties, which are 
all at stake." 

Dr. Fotliergill was more American than the 
conservative American Friends themselves. 

It woukl probably have been wiser, in the 
light of siibseqnent events, had they adopted his 
policy, alike dignified and liberaL They, how- 
ever, had a testimony which they felt they must 
bear against revolution, and allowed an estrange- 
ment to grow up against the liberal party, based 
not only on war, bnt also on the unhealthy means 



Preparing for the Revolution. IIU 

used to inflame the people. It must also be re- 
membered that at this time even the popular 
leaders were expecting some other solution of the 
difficulty than war and independence. 



120 Quakers in the Revolution. 



CHAPTEE YI. 

I 

THE EARLY YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION. 

The efforts of the peace men on both sides of 
the Atlantic were futile. The British pursued 
their policy of foolish consistency, determined to 
force the taxes down American throats. Lex- 
ington and Concord were fought, and a tremor 
of sympathetic response ran down and up the 
Atlantic coast. The continent set itself to learn 
the art of war to defend its liberties. While con- 
servative people still hoped for an accommoda- 
tion, the youth and the vigor of America felt 
that war was at hand, and began to prepare for it. 

James Pemberton writes to Dr. Fothergill : 

Philadelphia, Fifth month 6th, 1775. 

Dear Friend: 

The account lately received of the proceedings of Parlia- 
ment on American affairs, and the intention of sending a 
further armament to Boston, have raised such a resentment 
in the colonies that the people are become more than ever 
united in a determination to defend their liberties by re- 
sistance. Surprising it is that the administration should 
persist in enforcing measures which must evidently tend 
to increase our calamities and threaten ruin to both coun- 
tries. It is too sorrowful and arduous a task to describe 
our present situation; a military spirit prevails, the peo- 
ple are taken off from employment, intent on instructing 



The Early Years of the B evolution. 121 

themselves in the art of war, and many younger members 
of our Society are daily joining with them, so that the 
distresses of this province are hastening fast; but when we 
consider the still more calamitous state of Boston, it not 
only excites the greatest compassion but brings into view 
the most gloomy prospect of future lamentable conse- 
quences, unless some unforeseen interposition of Providence 
should avert the storm. 

When- the M y receive account of the late military 

action near Boston they must be convinced that the New 
England men will fight; a vein of blood is now opened, 
how far it may be permitted to extend we must leave. 
Although the accounts so far received of the transaction are 
somewhat imperfect, yet it is generally agreed that the 
king's troops are the aggressors, and narrowly escaped be- 
ing wholly cut off; by last advices the town of Boston was 
surrounded by an army of 20,000, and though the vessels of 
war intercept all provisions sent there from the Southern 
colonies, it is said they may be supplied by land from Con- 
necticut. 

Since I began this letter I have received thy acceptable 
letters by our mutual friend. Dr. Franklin, whose seasona- 
ble, unexpected return among us has dispensed general 
pleasure among all classes of people, hoping some good 
effect at this very critical time from his experience and cool 
judgment. The Congress meets on the 10th inst. 

Amidst these agitations it appears most prudent and safe 
for Friends to remain quiet. The minds of the people are 
too inflamed for any interposition by us to be useful. 
********* 

Your administration must soon be convinced of their mis- 
taken policy in the management of this unhappy contest. 
They may be assured the non-importation will be strictly 
observed, and it is expected all mercantile trade will be 
stopped by the Congress, so that the favor intended for 
New York, Nantucket, etc., will avail them nothing, nor 
will any other than the most lenient measures stop the ef- 



122 Quakers in the Revolution, 

fusion of blood and an increase of calamity to our and your 
country. 

The return of Franklin did not prove so calm- 
ing as Pemberton had hoped, for, throwing aside 
his wonted moderation, he plunged with vigor 
into the movement for armed resistance and in- 
dependence. 

Fothergill replies, three months later : 

I will not fill up this letter with forebodings to America 
first, and then to the whole empire of Great Britain. It is 
more than probable we shall never subdue you (when I say 
we I mean those above), but we shall struggle hard and run 
the risk of sending ourselves to the bottom if you are first 
plunged there. Fatal, fatal error! The revenge of a few 
discontented officials: what dreadful havoc it will make. 
But it is indeed, to you first and next to us, a time of great 
sifting, and those who look forward, even amongst us, can 
not but be alarmed for the public safety. You, our breth- 
ren as a Society, I lament every day. Oh! that the weight 
of Sacred Wisdom may press all to that foundation on 
which alone they may stand securely, and extend a hand 
of help to those who are in danger of drifting with the tide 
of confusion till they perish. 

And again a little later : 

Be it known, that many amongst us deeply sympathize 
with you under your afflicted situation. America has noth- 
ing to expect henceforth but severity. If one might reason 
upon the righteousness of a cause by the temper of those 
who are engaged in it, ours can not be a good one. I be- 
lieve there is no scheme however contrary to the principles 
of religion and humanity that should be ofifered as likely 
to subdue America that would not be adopted. 



The Early Years of the Bevoluiion. 123 

In the meantime the Meeting for Sufferingg 
was attending to the general interests of the 
Society. They first addressed their members to 
be liberal in raising money for the sufferers in 
Xew England: 

To our friends and brethren of the several meetings in 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey: 

Dear Friends. — The afflictions and distresses attending the 
inhabitants of Massachusetts and other parts of New Eng- 
land have often engaged our pity and commiseration, with 
a desire to be instrumental for their rehef as favorable 
opportunities should offer, and having more particular in- 
formation since the yearly meeting, held last month at 
Rhode Island, than we before had of the situation of our 
brethren and others in those parts, since which the depriva- 
tions of War have greatly increased, we are united by a 
spirit of sympathy and Christian tenderness to recommend 
to your serious and benevolent consideration the sorrow- 
ful calamities noAV prevailing among tliose people, earnestly 
desiring that we may encourage each other freely to con- 
tribute to the relief of the necessities of every religious de- 
nomination; to promote which we have agreed upon, and 
herewith send you printed subscription papers requesting 
that some suitable active Friends may be appointed in each 
of your monthly and preparative meetings to apply for the 
donations of Friends for this charitable purpose. 

A little later they fonvarded to the Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly, a long address, recounting the 
privileges belonging to all inhabitants of the 
Province as the result of Penn's liberal charter, 
and asking that those liberties, especially liberty 



124 Quakers in the Revolution. 

of conscience, be secured to all in the perilous 
times which were evidently at hand. 

We have a just sense of the value of our religious and 
civil liberties, and have ever been and are desirous of pre- 
serving them by all such measures as are not inconsistent 
with our Christian profession and principles, and though 
we believe it to be our duty to submit to the powers which 
in the course of Divine Providence are set over us, where 
there hath been or is any oppression or cause of suffering, 
we are engaged with Christian meekness and firmness to 
petition and remonstrate against it, and to endeavor by 
just reasoning and arguments to assert our rights and privi- 
leges in order to obtain relief. 

We, therefore, earnestly entreat j'ou carefully to guard 
against anj' proposal or attempt to deprive us and others 
of the full enjoyment of liberty of conscience, and that 
the solemn assurance given us in the charter that we shall 
not be obliged to do or suffer any act or thing contrary 
to our religious persuasion may not be infringed: the poAver 
of judging respecting our sincerity belongeth only to the 
Lord of our consciences, and we hope in a province hereto- 
fore remarkable for the preservation of religious and civil 
liberty, the representatives of the people will still be con- 
scientiously careful that it may remain inviolate. 

We firmly desire that the most conciliatory measure for 
removing the impending calamities, and for restoring jieace 
to the colonies in general, may be pursued, and that all 
such may be avoided as are likely to widen or perpetuate 
the breach with our parent state, or tend to introduce 
persecution or suffering among us. 

Furthermore, on First month 20th, 1776, they 
issued a general address to define their position. 
This afterwards gave great offence to the revo- 
lutionary party. It was an open statement of 
their opposition to extreme measures, and was no 



The Early Years of the Revolution, 126 

doubt intended to influence any who were within 
reach of their influence to avoid joining with 
them. The Germans had sent delegations to 
Philadelphia to find out how their friends, the 
Quakers, w^ith whom they had been politically 
allied ever since they had been in the Province, 
intended to act in the emergency. Many young 
Friends had joined the military companies, and 
many more, of all ages, undoubtedly sympa- 
thized with the xVmerican cause. Apparently 
these older Friends, whose weight ruled the 
official organizations, w^ere not ready to throw 
off their ancient allegiance, and their voice was 
still for peace, remonstrance and submission. 

The ancient testimony and principles of the people called 
Quakei's, renewed with respect to the king and government, 
and touching the commotions now prevailing in these and 
other parts of America, addressed to the people in general. 

A religious concern for Friends and fellow subjects of 
every denomination, and more especially for those of all 
ranks who in the present commotions are engaged in pub- 
lic employments and stations, induces us earnestly to be- 
seech every individual in the most solemn manner to con- 
sider the end and tendency of the measures they are 
promoting, and on the most impartial inquiry into the state 
of their minds, carefully to examine whether they are act- 
ing in the fear of God and in conformity to the precepts 
and doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we profess 
to believe in, and by whom alone we expect to be saved 
from our sins. 

The inhabitants of these provinces were long signally 
favored with peace and plenty. Have the returns of true 



126 Quahers in the Revolution. 



thankfulness been generally manifest? Have integrity and 
godly simplicity been maintained and religiously guarded? 
Have a religious care to do justly, love mercy, and walk 
humbly, been evident? Hath the precept of Christ to do 
unto others as we would they should do to us been the 
governing rule of our conduct? Hath an upright, impartial 
desire to prevent the slavery and oppression of our fellow- 
men, and to restore them to their natural right, to true 
Christian liberty, been cherished and encouraged? Or have 
pride, wantonness, luxury and profaneness, a partial spirit, 
and forgetfulness of the goodness and mercies of God, be- 
come lamentably prevalent? Have we not therefore abund- 
ant occasion to break off from our sins by righteousness, and 
our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor, and with true 
contrition and abasement of soul to humble ourselves and 
supplicate the Almighty Preserver of men to show favor, 
and to renew unto us a state of tranquility and peace? 
********* 

We are so fully assured that these principles are the most 
certain and effectual means of preventing the extreme mis- 
ery and desolations of wars and bloodshed that we are con- 
strained to entreat all who profess faith in Christ, to mani- 
fest that they really believe in Him and desire to obtain 
the blessing He promised to the makers of peace. 

This spirit ever leads for and seeks to improve every 
opportunity of promoting peace and reconciliation, and con- 
stantly to remember that as Ave really confide in Him, He 
can in His own time change the hearts of all men in such 
manner, that the way to obtain it can often be opened con- 
trary to every human prospect or expectation. 

May we therefore heartily and sincerely unite in suppli- 
cation to the Father of jNIercies, to grant the plentiful ef- 
fusions of his spirit to all, and in an especial manner to 
those in superior stations that they may with sincerity 
guard against, and reject all such measures and councils 
as may increase and perpetuate discord, animosities and un- 
happy conditions which now sorrowfully abound. 

The peculiar evidence of divine regard memiifested to our 



The Early Years of the Revolution. 127 

ancestors in the founding and settlement of these provinces, 
we have often commemorated, and desire ever to remember 
with true thankfulness and reverent admiration. 

When we consider that at the time they were persecuted 
and subjected to severe sufferings as a people unworthy of 
the benefits of religious or civil society, the hearts of the 
kings and rulers under whom they thus suffered were in- 
clined to grant them these fruitful lands, and entrust them 
with charters of very extensive powers and privileges; that 
on their arrival here the minds of the natives were inclined 
to receive them with great hospitality and friendship, and 
to cede to them the most valuable part of their land on 
very easy terms; that while the principles of justice and 
mercy continued to preside they were preserved in tran- 
quility and peace free from the desolating calamities of 
war, and their endeavors were wonderfully blessed and 
prospered, so that the saying of the wisest king was sig- 
nally verified to them, " When a man's ways please the 
Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with 
him." 

The benefits, advantages and favors we have experienced 
from our dependence and connection with the kings and 
government, under which we have enjoyed this happy state, 
appear to us to demand the greatest circumspection, care 
and constant endeavors to guard against every attempt to 
alter or subvert that dependence or connection. 

The scenes lately presented to our view, and the prospect 
before us, we are sensible are very distressing and dis- 
couraging; and though we lament that such amicable meas- 
ures as have been proposed, both here and in England, for 
the adjustment of the unhappy contests subsisting, have 
not yet been effectual, nevertheless we should rejoice to 
observe the continuance of mutual peaceable endeavors for 
eft'ecting a reconciliation, having grounds to hope the divine 
favor and blessing will attend them. 

" It hath ever been our judgment and principle, since Ave 
were called to profess the light of Christ Jesus manifested 
in our consciences unto this day that the setting up and 
putting down kings and governments, is God's peculiar pre- 



128 Quakers in the RevohiUon. 

rogative, for causes best known to himself; and that it is 
not our business to have any hand or continuance therein, 
nor to be busybodies above our station, much less to plot 
or contrive the ruin or overthrow of any of them, but to 
pray for the king and for the safety of our nation, and the 
good of all men; that we may live a peaceable and quiet 
life, in all godliness and honesty, under the government 
which God is pleased to set over us." — Ancient Testimony, 
1696, in Sewel's History. 

May we therefore firmly unite in the abhorrence of all 
such writings and measures, as evidence a design to break 
off the happy connection we have heretofore enjoyed with 
the kingdom of Great Britain, and our just and necessary 
subordination to the king and those who are lawfully placed 
in authority under him, that thus the repeated solemn dec- 
larations made on this subject in the addresses sent to the 
king, on the behalf of the people of America in general, 
may be confirmed, and remain to be our firm and sincere 
intentions to observe and fulfill. 

John Pemberton, Clerk. 

When the reports from the various Quarterly 
Meetings came up to the Yearly Meeting in the 
fall of 1775, it was evident that a large nimiber 
had already violated the pacific principles of 
their Society. The clerk summarized the re- 
ports : 

All the accounts except that from Shrewsbury lament 
the sorrowful deviation which has lately appeared in many 
members from our peaceable profession and principles in 
joining with the multitude in warlike exercise, and instruct- 
ing themselves in the art of war which has occasioned pain- 
ful labor to the faithful among us whose care has been 
extended to advise and admonish those who are concerned 
therein. 



The Early Years of the Revolution. 129 

The Yearly Meeting therefore advised as 
follows : 

We have taken under weighty consideration the sorrow- 
ful account given of the public deviation of many professors 
of the truth among us from our ancient testimony against 
war, and being favored in our deliberations on this afi'ecting 
subject with the calming influences of that love which de- 
sires and seeks for their convincement of their error and 
restoration, in order that our union and felloAVship may 
be preserved, and a faithful testimony maintained to the 
excellency of the Gospel dispensation which breathes 
" Peace on earth and good will to men," it is our united 
concern and desire that faithful friends in their respective 
meetings may speedily and earnestly labor in the strength 
of this love for the reclaiming of those who have thus 
deviated, and where it is necessary that Quarterly Meetings 
should appoint suitable friends to join their assistance in 
the performance of this weighty service, and where such 
brotherly labor is so slighted and disregarded, that by per- 
sisting in this violation, they manifest that they are not 
convinced of our Christian principles, or are actuated by a 
spirit and temper in opposition thereto, it is our duty to 
testify our disunion with them. 

A,nd we also desire that all friends in this time of close 
probation would be careful in no part of their conduct to 
manifest an approbation or countenance to such things as 
are obviously contrary to our peaceable profession and prin- 
ciples, either as spectators or otherwise, at the same time 
avoiding to give just occasion of offence to any Avho do not 
make religious profession with us, manifesting that we are 
actuated solely by a conscientious principle and Christian 
spirit, agreeable to the repeated cautions and advice hereto- 
fore given forth by this meeting, our meeting for suffer- 
ings and the epistles from our brethren in Great Britain 
since the commencement of the troubles which have lately 
arisen, and continue to prevail in these colonies. 

Many friends have expressed that a religious objection 



130 Quakers in the Revolution. 

is raised in their minds against receiving or paying certain 
paper bills of credit lately issued expressly for the purpose 
of carrying on war, apprehending that it is a duty required 
of them to guard carefully against contributing thereto 
in any manner. 

We therefore fervently desire that such who are not con- 
vinced that it is their duty to refuse those bills, may be 
watchful over their own spirits, and abide in true love and 
charity so that no expressions or conduct tending to the 
oppression of tender consciences may appear among us; 
and we likewise affectionately exhort those who have this 
religious scruple that they do not admit nor indulge cen- 
sure in their minds against their brethren who have not the 
same, carefully manifesting by the whole tenor of their 
conduct that nothing is done through strife or contention, 
but that they act from the clear convictions of truth in 
their own minds, showing forth by their meekness, humility 
and patient suffering that they are the followers of the 
Prince of Peace. 

The attitude taken by the Friends whose voices 
controlled the official conclusions of the body 
seems, as nearly as can be ascertained, to have 
been as follows: " We did not approve the pro- 
ceedings of the British ministry, which irritated 
the Americans; we thought them ill-advised, and, 
in view of their certain effects, wicked ; we would 
have joined with our fellow-citizens in peaceful 
legal resistance to them and have suffered, as we 
have proven we are able to suffer, for the prin- 
ciples of liberty and justice. But we do not 
believe in revolutions, and we do not believe in 
war; we will not be a party to overturning the 



The Early Years of the Revolution. 131 

beneficent charter of William Penn, nor will we 
aid in throwing off our ultimate allegiance to the 
king of Great Britain. We, who largely made 
this Province what it is, and who have shown in 
the past our capacity for the peaceful mainten- 
ance of rights, are utterly opposed to the meas- 
ures now taken, and disavow all responsibility 
for them. We cannot take any part in the war, 
on one side or the other; we cannot recognize 
the revolutionary government, set up by illegal 
means, by holding office under it or by affirming 
allegiance to it; nor will we assist Britain in the 
unrighteous means taken to conquer rebellious 
Provinces; we are out of the whole business, and 
will give aid and comfort to neither party." In 
one sense they were loyalists, and it is quite prob- 
able that the personal sympathies of many of 
them were with the British cause. But they 
were innocuous loyalists; they were neither spies 
on American movements nor did they flee for 
}irotection to British headquarters. They re- 
mained in their houses, asked to he considered 
as neutrals, and to have nothing to do with the 
'^ commotions " (a favorite word with them) 
existing. Something like this seems to have 
been the position taken by the meetings in their 
collective canacity, and this they undertook by 



132 Quakers in the Revolution. 

all ecclesiastical means to enforce on their mem- 
bership. 

This was, however, no easy task. There were 
a few active British abettors. They were 
promptly disowned. There were a great many 
who joined heartily with the American cause; 
and they shared the same fate. The monthly 
meetings were very busy during the whole period 
of the war in the proceedings against Friends 
who were unfaithful to their principles. At least 
one hundred and forty were " dealt with '' and 
"disowned" by two monthly meetings in the city 
of Philadelphia. The causes given were various: 
— " Assuming a military appearance " ; " As- 
sociating with others in training and exercising 
to learn the art of war "; " Acting as soldiers in 
the American army " ; " Making a voyage in 
a ship of war, fitted out from this place, in the 
course of which he had been concerned in seizing 
and taking away from English subjects their 
property " ; " Taking money for warlike services 
of slaves " ; " Joining the British army "* ; 
" Joining the American army, and attending a 
play '' ; " Accepting offices in the American 
army " ; " Associating in warlike exercise, and 

* One case only, so far as known. 



The Early Years of the Revolution. 133 

accepting an employment to bnild a fort in South 
Carolina " ; " Fitting out a vessel for trade, 
provided to repel in a warlike way any attack 
which might be made upon it, which has been 
attended with sorrowful consequences in shed- 
ding human blood and loss of life " ; " Being 
concerned with others in- carrying on a trade in 
the river Delaware with a vessel fitted in a war- 
like manner " ; " Fitting out an armed vessel, 
which may prove the cause of shedding human 
blood " ; " Paying fines in lieu of personal mili- 
tary service " ; " Purposely placing money be- 
fore a person who was about seizing his effects 
to satisfy a fine imposed on him in lieu of mili- 
tary service " ; " Dealing in prize goods, and 
fighting in the public streets " ; " Making 
weapons of war formed for the destruction of his 
fellow-men " ; "Associating with others to en- 
courage informations and accusations against 
such fellow-citizens as, through the heats and 
animosities subsisting, were become the objects 
of party resentment, and by sersdng as a juryman 
in the trial and condemnation of a fellow-mem- 
ber in religious profession, wdio suffered death 
in this city under a law which appears to us 
adapted to the views and temper of men actuated 
by the spirit of war rather than founded on true 



134 Quakers in the Revolution. 

justice and the principles of Christianity " ; 
" Uniting himself by a test or declaration of al- 
legiance to one of the contending parties now at 
war " ; " Taking a test of allegiance to one and 
an abjuration of the other of the contending par- 
ties now at war " ; " Enlisting as an artificer in 
a military employ " ; " Being in an engage- 
ment where many were slain '' ; " Holding a 
commission for furnishing supplies to one of the 
parties engaged in strife and war " ; " Engag- 
ing in military employment on board a ship of 
war " ; " Appearing with arms, and assisting 
in taking several persons from their dwellings in 
a warlike manner " ; " Purchasing a horse that 
was taken as a prize " ; " Assisting in laying a 
tax for military purposes '' ; " Countenancing 
the fine gatherers by taking some receipts which 
had been given for forage taken by the army in 
lieu of personal military service '' ; " Offering 
duplicates in order for the collection of taxes, 
part of which is a fine for not taking the test 
(so-called) " ; '' Countenancing the payment of 
a demand for the releasing of his cow that was 
seized for a substitute fine " ; " Selling prize 
rum which his son got by privateering " ; 
" Paying a fine for refusing to collect taxes for 
military puq^oses " ; " Meeting militia on mus- 



The Early Years of the Revolution. 135 

ter days '^ ; " Paying taxes for hiring men to 
go to war." 

The difficulty was greatest in 1775 when war 
first broke out. The monthly meetings reported 
in many cases in substance as follows : 

A sorrowful defection lately appears in a number of our 
young people who, disregarding our ancient testimony and 
the peaceable spirit of the Gospel, have in the present time 
of outward commotion associated with others in training 
to learn the military exercises. Their cases are mostly un- 
der care. 

One of the first cases taken up w^as Thomas 
Mifflin's. In March, 1775, he was reported to 
the Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia " for join- 
ing with and promoting measures pursued by 
the people for arresting their civil privileges in 
such a manner as is inconsistent with our peace- 
able profession and principles." Four months 
later, when judgment was reached, he had added 
other causes. He was aide-de-camp to General 
Washington, and the meeting testified: 

Thomas Mifflin, of this city, merchant, who hath pro- 
fessed to be a member of our religious Society, having for 
a considerable time past been active in the promotion of 
military measures, it became our concern and care to en- 
deavor to convince him of the inconsistency of his conduct 
with our peaceable principles, but he declaring himself not 
convinced of our Christian testimony against wars and light- 
ings, and persisting therein, whereby he hath separated 
himself from religious fellowship with us, we are under 



136 Quakers in the E evolution. 

a necessity to declare that we cannot esteem him to be a 
member of our religious society until by the illumination 
of Divine Grace he is further convinced and becomes de- 
sirous of being truly united in religious fellowship with us, 
to which state we desire he may attain. 

These hopes were never fulfilled. Mifflin 
served with distinction on Long Island and at 
Trenton, and became Major-General in 1777. 
In 1788 he was made President of Pennsylvania, 
and was a member of the Convention which 
framed the Constitution of the United States. 
From 1790 to 1799 he w^as Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania. Except for a loss of prestige arising from 
his supposed sympathy with Conway's Cabal he 
had a distinguished career, which, however, 
showed but little trace of his Quaker education. 

As in this case, the assumption usually was 
that the offender against the rules of Society had 
separated himself by his own actions, and the 
minute was simply a public record of the fact, 
coupled with a hope for his future restoration. 

There were the usual number of other offences, 
moral and ecclesiastical, which also had to be 
attended to, so that the diminution in numbers 
between 1775 and 1781 must have been consid- 
erable, and the sufferers being mainly young 
men, the loss to the future was serious. Some 
of them became penitent and returned, making 



The Early Years of the Revolution. 137 

due acknowledgments, in years to come, but 
many were permanently lost. 

It was undoubtedly a serious matter to be 
banned in this way. There w^as not in those 
days the easy passage from sect to sect we now 
have, and the marked peculiarities of the Friends 
in beliefs and customs, many of which they 
would adhere to after disownment, made them 
feel as strangers in any other church habitation. 
When the war was over they would naturally 
look back longingly to their old friends, to whom 
they were drawn by many intellectual and social 
ties. 

In addition, the question of slavery was being 
now forced to an issue with the individual mem- 
bers. "While the Revolutionary War was ra2:in2: 
the last slaves were disappearing among Friends. 
After years of advice and entreaty, which had 
been largely successful, the yearly meeting had 
concluded, in 1776, to force the issue with the 
few remaining slave-holders. They had wilfully 
stood out against the prolonged laboi'^ of their 
friends and the directions of their meetings, and 
one by one their cases were considered and they, 
if still obdurate, disowned. Hence we find such 
minutes as this almost the last on record : 



138 Quakers in the Revolution. 



In the course of our labors for restoring the oppressed 
negroes to the possession of that libertj^ to which they are 
entitled equally with ourselves, and which we are fully sen- 
sible is their just due agreeable to the conclusion of our 
Yearly Meeting, it became our concern to treat with— — — 

on account of a negro woman which he persists 

to retain in thraldom in order to make him sensible of the 
duty which is incumbent on him to restore her to that 
natural right of freedom which through the prevalence of 
unrighteous custom she has hitherto been deprived of, but 
our repeated labors of love not availing, and he continuing 
to \vithhold from her her just right from a mistaken ap- 
prehension that it is more for her advantage as well as for 
her OAvn security that she should remain in subjection to 
him, after long and repeated treating with him on this im- 
portant subject we find ourselves constrained on the behalf 
of truth and justice to declare that we cannot hold the said 
in religious fellowship with us until he con- 
sents to restore the said negro woman to her just and 
natural right which we must desire for his own sake (as 
his time in this world cannot be long), and also for the 
reputation of truth he may speedily be induced to do. 

The Yearly Meeting could report, in the fall 
of 1776 : 

That labor has been extended to such who have violated 
our Christian testimony against war, by associating to exer- 
cise and learn the use of warlike weapons, many of whom 
have been declared to have separated themselves from re- 
ligious fellowship with us, and others in this practice are 
under the care and dealing of the respective Monthly Meet- 
ings. 

in 1776 the Yearly Meeting sent out some 
general advices : 

Being by the continued mercy of the Almighty Preserver 
of men favored with another opportunity of meeting to- 



The Early Years of the Revolution. 139 



gether in peace and quietness, our minds are impressed with 
reverent thankfulness to him, (and) engaged in much broth- 
erly love and sympathy to salute you; earnestly desiring 
that, in this time of affliction and adversity, we may be 
fervently concerned to improve so great a blessing with 
humble and thankful hearts, and to manifest our constant 
care for the building up each other in that faith which 
works by love. 

Under this exercise, we are constrained to entreat and 
exhort all to keep near to the divine principle which will 
lead us from the love of the world, its spirits and maxims, 
into a life of self-denial and humility, in conformity to the 
precepts and example of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom 
Ave are taught that wrath, contention, wars and fighting 
are unlawful, and that meekness, patience and universal 
love to mankind will be rewarded with peace, passing the 
understanding of the carnal mind which is not subject to 
the law of God, and in which those who abide, cannot 
please him. 

********* 

And, dear friends, as we profess to be followers of the 
Prince of Peace, and our principles have led us to declare, 
that we place no confidence nor dependence in the arm 
of flesh, we earnestly exhort each individual to cease from 
man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to 
be accounted of? And as deep trials, sufferings and revil- 
ings may be permitted to come upon us, let us bear the rod 
and him who hath appointed it, and not seek for or expect 
deliverance by the hand of man, but endeavor to get into 
that humble, meek, quiet, peaceable spirit, which beareth 
all things, and when it is reviled, revileth not again, but 
suft'ereth patiently; and have our eye single to Christ, the 
Captain of our salvation, who is alone able to work de- 
liverance for us in his own time. 

Under the affliction and sorrow we painfully feel for the 
deviation of some, who have made profession with us, from 
our peaceable principles, we have renewed cause with thank- 
fulness to acknowledge that a large number of hopeful 
youth, appear united with us in a living concern for the 



140 Quakers in the Revolution, 

cause and testimony of truth, and the keeping to the good 
order of that excellent discipline which our ancestors were 
enabled to establish, and which as it is rightly adminis- 
tered, we have found to be as a hedge about us. We fer 
vently desire all such may be strengthened and confirmed 
in holy resolutions to wait for that wisdom which is profita 
ble to direct in the maintaining of it, over all backsliders 
and transgressors, who after being treated with in the 
spirit of meekness, cannot be reclaimed. 

Many seasonable admonitions, exhortations and cautions 
suitable to the circumstances of these perilous times, having 
been given forth by our brethren in G. Britain last year 
and since by our Meeting for Sufferings, we affectionately 
recommend to the renewed consideration of them and of the 
minutes of this meeting last year. As the lust of worldly 
honor and power hath been productive of the calamities 
and distresses to Avhich we are now subjected, we are in- 
cited by a sincere concern for the welfare of our brethren, 
and their prosperity in the truth, to intreat them, dur- 
ing the present commotions and unsettled state of ajffairs, 
to decline from having any share in the authority and 
powers of government; and to circumscribe themselves 
within plain and narrow bounds, it being our united sense 
and judgment that none of our brethren in religious pro- 
fession should be concerned in electing or being elected to 
public places of honor, trust or profit, believing that such 
who disregard our counsel and advice herein, are in danger 
of being ensnared and suffering loss, and may become in- 
struments of misleading others from that quiet and peace- 
able life we should endeavor to lead in Godliness and hon- 
esty agreeable to the exhortation of the apostle. 

And as the distresses of many m divers parts of this con- 
tinent are now very great and daily increasing, we earnestly 
recommend to friends in general, and particularly to those 
who have received the increase of earthly possessions, to 
be religiously careful to avoid all unnecessary expenses, and 
to be ready to distribute and communicate towards the 
relief of their suffering brethren, not only of our own, but 
to every other society and denomination; and that a spirit 



The Early Years of the Revolution. 141 

of benevolence and true charity with a desire and care to 
be faithful stewards of the manifold blessings and favors 
conferred upon us, may increase and prevail among us. 



And as our forefathers were often led to commemorate 
the many instances of divine favor conferred upon them 
through the difficulties they encountered in settling in the 
wilderness, let us be like minded with them, and if after 
a long time of enjoying the fruits of their labors and par- 
taking of the blessings of peace and plenty we should be 
restrained or deprived of some of our rights and privileges, 
let us carefully guard against being drawn into the vindi- 
cation of them, and seeking redress by any measures which 
are not consistent with our religious profession and prin- 
ciples nor with the Christian patience manifested by our 
ancestors in such times of trial; and we fervently desire all 
may impartially consider whether we have manifested that 
firmness in our love to the cause of truth and universal 
righteousness which is required of us, and that we may 
unite in holy resolutions to seek the Lord in sincerity and 
to wait upon him daily for wisdom to order our conduct 
hereafter in all things to his praise. 

And beloved friends, we beseech you in brotherly affec- 
tion, to remember that as under divine providence we are 
indebted to the king and his royal ancestors for the con- 
tinued favor of enjoying our religious liberty, we are under 
deep obligations to manifest our loyalty and fidelity, 
and that we should discourage every attempt which may 
be made by any to excite disaffection or disrespect to him, 
and particularly to manifest our dislike to all such writings 
as are or may be published of that tendency. 

And as it hath ever been our practice since we were a 
people to advise all professing with us to be careful not to 
defraud the king of his customs and duties nor to be con- 
cerned in dealing in goods unlawfully imported, we find 
it necessary now most earnestly to exhort that the same 
care may be continued with faithfulness and diligence, and 
that friends keep clear of purchasing any such goods either 



142 Quakers in the Revolution. 

for sale or private use; that so we may not be in any way 
instrumental in countenancing or promoting the iniquity, 
false swearing and violence which are the common conse- 
quences of an unlawful and clandestine trade. 

The Meeting for Sufferings, under date of 
Twelfth month 20th, 1776, issued an address to 
Friends, upon which serious charges of disaffec- 
tion to the American cause were afterwards 
based, resulting disastrously to a number of im- 
portant members. The old Constitution of Penn 
had first been annulled, and the advice was prac- 
tically to disobey the new one, under authority 
of which subscription to tests of allegiance was 
demanded. It would have been most remark- 
able had the government passed over such an 
issue. 

Thus we may with Christian firmness withstand and re- 
fuse to submit to the arbitrary injunctions and ordinances 
of men, who assume to themselves the power of compelling 
others, either in person or by other assistance, to join in 
carrying on war and of prescribing modes of determining 
concerning our religious principles, by imposing tests not 
warranted by the precepts of Christ, or the laws of the 
happy constitution under which we and others long en- 
joyed tranquility and peace. 

The issue w^as definitely joined. By all the 
authority possessed by the representative bodies. 
Friends were admonished not only to avoid tak- 
ing up arms, but also not to recognize the gov- 



The Early Years of the Revolution. 143 

ernment formed on the ruins of the old charter, 
by accepting any office under it or making any 
]iromises of allegiance to it. We are now sure 
that this refusal was based on conscientious ob- 
jections to being forced to declare themselves by 
a power, the legality of which they were not wil- 
ling to accept, and was unaccompanied by any 
treasonable connection with the British army. 
These facts must have been known by some of 
the Pennsylvanians, but hardly by other mem- 
bers of the Continental Congress, and it is not to 
be wondered at that the leaders of Friends were 
classed with the dangerous Tories and treated 
accordingly. 

The meetings, however, so far as appears from 
their minutes, were practically agreed on this 
policy, and Philadelphia Monthly Meeting was 
able to report in 1777, " We hope love and unity 
are on the increase among us." 

The country meetings did not fail to respond 
to the action of their Philadelphia brethren. 
Chester Monthly Meeting, which embraced the 
larger part of what is now Delaware County, 
which afterwards lost about seventy members by 
disownment for military or political offences 
during the war, agreed to carry out the policy 



144 Quakers in the Revolution. 

in its entirety. In 17Y5 they adopted this ad- 
vice : 

An epistle from the Meeting for Sufferings was read, 
containing some good advice respecting the present situa- 
tion of pubHc affairs, and a testimony from said meeting 
against every usurpation of power and authority in oppo- 
sition to the laws and government, and against all com- 
binations, insurrections, conspiracies and illegal assemblies; 
Avhich this meeting taking with solid consideration doth 
conclude that all members belonging to this meeting that 
do in any measure countenance or abet anything contrary 
to our religious principles ought speedily to be treated with 
by overseers and preparative meetings. 



The Virgitiia Exiles, 145 

CHAPTEK VII. 

THE VIRGINIA EXILES. 

Late in 1776 the war, which had hitherto been 
mainly confined to New England and New York, 
approached Philadelphia, " These are the times 
that try men's souls," Avrote Thomas Paine. 
AVashington, with the wreck of an army, re- 
treated across Jersey, closely followed by the 
British imder Sir William Howe. 

In Philadelphia there was great excitement. 
Galloway and other loyalists joined the British. 
The roads leading from the city were crowded 
with fugitives seeking places of safety. The 
sick of Washington's army were brought into the 
city almost naked, and were lodged in the 
vacated houses. Every effort was made to 
arouse the spirit of resistance by accounts of the 
barbarities practised by the British troops in the 
march through the Jerseys. Congress, then 
sitting in Philadelphia, .adjourned to Baltimore. 

The daring and successful night attack of 
Washington on the Hessians at Trenton, and 
his magnificent campaign following, Avhen, with 
a raw and inefficient army, he outgeneraled 



146 Quakers in the Revolution. 

Howe and drove him back to Xew York, 
removed for a time the danger to the Quaker 
City. The American army hovered about be- 
tween Philadelphia and New York during the 
early half of 1777, uncertain of the plans of the 
British general. On the 25th of August, he 
revealed his purpose by landing at Elk Ferry, in 
the Chesapeake, with the evident intention of 
attacking Philadelphia from the south. Wash- 
ington marched through the city, making the 
best show he could with his poorly-armed and 
ragged troops, and on the 11th of September met 
the British army under Cornwallis, at Chadd's 
Ford, on the Brandywine. In this quiet farm- 
ing country, settled almost exclusively by 
Friends, around the old Birmingham Meeting- 
House, was fought one of the bloodiest battles 
of the war. Washington was defeated by a 
flank attack, led by Cornwallis, wdio crossed the 
stream about five miles above the Ford, and met 
the American army hastily drawn up to face 
them at the meeting-house. The Americans 
lost 1,000 men, the British about half as many. 
The latter followed the retreating, but not de- 
moralized, Americans to the Schuylkill. After 
two weeks' manoeuvering Howe's army sue- 



The Virginia Exiles. 147 

ceeded in crossing the stream, and on the 25th 
encamped at Germantown. 

Congress departed in haste to Lancaster, and 
a detachment of British troops took possession of 
the city. The people, an old account states, 
generally " appeared sad and serious." This 
may be partly accounted for by the following 
minute of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting : 

The 26th Day of the 9 month 1777 being the day in course 
for holding our monthly meeting a number of friends met 
when the present situation of things being considered and 
it appearing that the Kings Army are near entering the 
city, at which time it may be proper the inhabitants should 
generally be at their habitations, in order to preserve as 
much as possible peace and good order on this solemn 
occasion it is therefore proposed to adjourn the mo. mtg. 
&c. 

The attack on Germantown, where the main 
body of the British were encamped, showed the 
world that the spirit of the Americans was not 
quelled. This was only temporarily successful, 
and the two armies settled down in winter quar- 
ters, Washington and his troops to endure the 
sufferings of Valley Forge, while Howe and his 
officers held high revel in Philadelphia; his 
men being comfortably quartered in the numer- 
ous unoccupied houses and stores. The capture 
of the forts on the Delaware made them largely 
independent of the neighboring country, where 



148 Quakers in the Bevolution. 

foraging parties of the Americans greatly inter- 
fered with their supplies and a winter of gaiety 
and revelry followed. If the Friends had any 
disposition to look npon the king's troops on 
their entrance as settling their allegiance on a 
stronger basis, they changed their minds before 
the winter was over. Their influence hitherto 
had kept the city decorous and reasonably moral, 
and they were shocked at the laxity which now 
for the first time invaded the city of Penn. 
Drunken soldiers destroyed the quiet of the 
nights, cock-fighting and gambling were openly 
sanctioned by Sir William Howe, and the young 
Philadelphians, making common cause with the 
dissipated British ofiicers, were ruined in morals 
and purses, while stage-plays and balls, club- 
meetings and horse-races, followed each other in 
rapid succession. It was a difficult time for the 
Friends, who w^ere probably one-fifth of the pop- 
ulation, and who were in general in fairly com- 
fortable circumstances, to maintain their stand- 
ards of living among their young men. 

The probability of a French army of attack 
coming to America made the permanent occupa- 
tion of Philadelphia impossible, and on the 18th 
of June, 1778, Sir Henry Clinton, who had sup- 
erseded Howe, evacuated the city and marched 



The Virginia Exiles. 149 

across Jersey. AYasliington promptly started in 
pursuit, fought the battles of Princeton and 
Monmouth, and had the satisfaction of accelerat- 
ing the retreat and finally seeing the British 
army embark for Xew York city. 

The out-and-out Tories left the city with the 
British. The Friends remained in their houses, 
as they had done when the invaders entered. 
They suffered from both parties — the most, 
however, from the Americans for their unwil- 
lingness to join in the national defence. Their 
policy was to remain quiet and take what came 
to them without giving military aid to either 
party or acting as spies upon either. 

When the American army regained possession 
of the city it was placed in command of Benedict 
Arnold, who proceeded to enrich himself by con- 
fiscating the property of the Tories, and by his 
marriage with Peggy Shippen, the daughter of 
a prominent loyalist. The National and State 
Congresses resumed their sessions. Wild spec- 
ulation and gross extravagance, to which the 
depreciated condition of the paper currency was 
a stimulus, pervaded the city. The State Gov- 
ernment, undfn' the new Constitution, was in the 
hands of new men, who did not receive the con- 
fidence of the more substantial people. The 



150 Qualcers in the Bevolution. 

town was full of desperate characters. Its 
beauty was destroyed, its trees cut down for fire- 
wood, its suburbs burned, its streets filthy, its 
houses denuded of furniture. There were the 
bitterest feelings against Tories of all grades, and 
two victims, of whom more presently, were hung 
to appease the popular fury. A mob which 
threatened to hang all Quakers, Tories and spec- 
ulators was for a time in possession of the city. 
The " Constitutionalists," as the extreme revo- 
lutionists were called, resolved to drive out every 
vestige of loyalism. The college founded by 
Franklin — now the. University of Pennsylvania 
— had its charter annulled, and a new one, sup- 
posed to be more favorable to the prevailing- 
powers, was created in its place, which had only 
the effect of bringing into existence two rival 
weaklings and destroying the medical school, 
then just establishing its great history. 

In this disturbed, unhealthy state, Philadel- 
phia remained until the end of the war. It was 
no time for the Quakers to have anything to do 
with government, and they wisely refrained 
from making any attempt. 

The city Friends had to bear the brunt of the 
trouble. Those in the country were disturbed 
by the actual passage of the armies and of forag- 



The Virginia Exiles. 151 

ing parties in 1777 and 1778, but at other times 
they tilled their fields in personal security. 

About one-fifth of the adult male Friends in 
Philadelphia had joined the American army, or 
taken places under the revolutionary govern- 
ment. A very small number had as openly es- 
poused the cause of the King. The large major- 
ity, including the more representative Friends, 
with varying sympathies, had kept straight to the 
advice of their Yearly Meeting in favor of neu- 
trality and non-participation. Dr. Fothergill 
wrote : 

Be quiet and mind your own business; promote every 
good work. Show yourselves subject to that overruling 
Providence which guides all things for the good of that im- 
mortal part which is made to subsist not only after all 
these transient outrages are at an end but through endless 
ages. 

When news arrived of the landing of the Eng- 
lish army on the Chesapeake, Congress, then in 
session at Philadelphia, recommended : 

That the Executive officers of the State of Pennsyl- 
vania be requested to cause all persons notoriously dis- 
affected forthwith to be disarmed and secured until such 
time as they may be released without injury to the common 
cause. That it be recommended to the Supreme Executive 
Council of the State of Pennsylvania to cause diligent 
search to be made in the houses of all inhabitants of the 
city of Philadelphia, who have not manifested their at- 
tachment to the American cause, for firearms, swords, 
bayonets, etc. 



152 Quakers in the Revolution. 

Three days later they further advise : 

That the several testimonies which have been published 
since the commencement of the present contest betwixt 
G. Britain and America, and the uniform tenor of the 
conduct, and conversation of a number of persons of consid- 
erable wealth, who profess themselves to belong to the 
society of people commonly called Quakers, render it certain 
and notorious that those persons are, with much rancor and 
bitterness, disaffected to the American cause; that, as 
these persons will have it in their power, so there is 
no doubt it will be their inclination, to communicate intel- 
ligence to the enemy, and, in various other ways, to in- 
jure the counsels and arms of America: 

That when the enemy, in the month of December, 1776, 
were bending their progress towards the city of Philadel- 
phia, a certain seditious publication, addressed " To our 
friends and brethren in religious profession in these and 
the adjacent provinces," signed John Pemberton, in and on 
behalf of the meeting of sufferings held at Philadelphia for 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the 26th of the 12th month, 
1776, was published, and, as your committee is credibly in- 
formed, circulated amongst many members of the so- 
ciety called Quakers, throughout the different states: 

That, as the seditious paper aforesaid originated in the 
city of Philadelphia, and as the persons whose names are 
under-mentioned, have uniformly manifested a disposition 
highly inimical to the cause of America, therefore, 

Ret-jolved, That it be earnestly recommended to the su- 
preme executive council of the state of Pennsylvania, forth- 
with to apprehend and secure the persons of Joshua Fisher, 
Abel James, James Pemberton, Henry Drinker, Israel Pem- 
berton, John James, Samuel Pleasants, Thomas Wharton, 
sen., Thomas Fisher, son of Joshua, and Samuel Fisher, sou 
of Joshua, together with all such papers in their posses- 
sion as may be of a political nature. 

And whereas, there is strong reason to apprehend that 
these persons maintain a correspondence and connexion 



The Virginia Exiles. IT) 3 

highly prejudicial to the public safety, not only in this state 
but in the several states of America. 

Resolved. That it be recommended to the executive pow- 
ers of the respective states, forthwith to apprehend and se- 
cure all persons, as well among the people called Quakers 
as others, who have, in their general conduct and conversa- 
tion, evidenced a disposition inimical to the cause of 
America; and that the persons so seized, be confined in 
such places, and treated in such manner, as shall be con- 
sistent with their respective characters and security of 
their persons: 

That the records and papers of the meetings of suffer- 
ings in the respective states be forthwith secured and care- 
fully examined, and that such parts of them as may be of 
a political nature, be forthwith transmitted to Congress. 

Under cover of these resolutions the Council 
proceeded to arrest about forty people, more for 
the purpose of striking terror into British sym- 
pathizers than anything else. There was no 
trial, or even hearing. They were merely hur- 
ried into confinement, their houses searched, 
their desks broken open in a search for compro- 
mising papers, and a parole, including a promise 
to remain in their houses demanded of them. 
Some of them gave it, others, including all the 
Quakers, refused. 

The authorities, therefore, had on their hands 
a company of about twenty people of irreproach- 
able character, highly respected in all the rela- 
tions of private life, against whom no definite 
charges could be preferred, but who refused eveii 



154 Qualcers in the Revolution. 

to promise good behavior if allowed to remain at 
tlieir homes. They said they had committed no 
offences, and that it was an ontrage to throw 
citizens into jail withont a charge, and present 
a test to them, as if thev had ever been gnilty of 
miscondnct, and conld be suspected for the fu- 
ture. 

There was undoubtedly considerable popular 
outcry against them, due in part to general sus- 
picions, in part to the epistles of the meetings, 
more especially that of the Meeting for Suffer- 
ings, the objectionable paragraph of which has 
already been given in a previous page, and in 
part to the publication of a curious paper said to 
have been captured by General Sullivan on 
Staten Island with the British baggage, which 
was considered evidence of treasonable corre- 
spondence with the enemy. 

This paper began with eight questions relating 
to the position of the American troops, and 
under the head of '' Information from Jersey, 
19 August, 1777,'' gave as a partial answer to 
them : 

It is said Genei-al Howe landed near the head of Chesa- 
peake Bay but can not learn the particular spot or when. 

Washington lays in Pennsylvania about twelve miles from 
Coryell's Ferry. 



The Virginia Exiles. 155 

Sullivan lays about six miles north of Morristown with 
about 2,000 men. 

Spanktown Yearly ^Meeting. 

Then, in a postscript dated nine days later, 
was added information of the southward march 
of the various divisions of the army, with the 
number of each. 

The only circumstance connecting the 
Quakers with the matter was the subscription 
" Spanktown Yearly Meeting." There was, of 
course, no such yearly meeting, but Spanktown 
was a name sometimes applied to Rahway, where 
there was a Quarterly Meeting. The absurdity 
of an organized meeting being engaged in spy- 
ing out the proceedings of the American army 
and signing its name did not save the report from 
receiving considerable credence. It was quickly 
pointed out that the 19th of August was several 
days before the landing, as was also the 2 2d, 
the date of the capture by Sullivan, and that the 
signature of a mythical yearly meeting to an 
otherwise unrecognizable letter was no proof of 
Quaker origin. Indeed, so far as the authorities 
were concerned, after a little investigation the 
matter was apparently allowed to drop, and the 
charges were based on the general belief in the 
English sympathies of the prisoners and the de- 



156 Quakers in the B evolution. 

liverances of the meetings. Spanktown, how- 
ever, had a prominent place in the ephemeral 
literature of the day, and the incident nndoubt- 
edly intensified the anti-Quaker feeling of the 
people, who apparently believed that every 
Quaker meeting was a centre of treasonable plot- 
ting and correspondence. 

The searching of the prisoners' desks produced 
nothing except the minutes of the meetings, 
which were taken and printed by order of Con- 
gress and were with some difficulty regained. 
They contained only what the reader has already 
seen — nothing more compromising than the gen- 
eral advice to take no part in the revolution. 
There were no evidences of correspondence with 
the enemy, and we must believe James Pember- 
ton when he writes to Kobert Morris from Vir- 
ginia : 

I can with much firmness and truth assert my innocence 
of having given any occasion for the hard treatment I have 
received from this unnatural banishment. . . . From a mind 
conscious of integrity and innocence I can unreservedh' 
declare that I have never had at any time the least corre- 
spondence with General Howe or any British commander 
or others concerned in the military operations against 
America nor do I intend to have; I hope my general con- 
duct and conversation have evidenced me a friend to 
mankind and my country, and T am restrained from a pure 
principle of conscience in doing anything to promote con- 
tention, war & bloodshed among men whose universal wel- 
fare I much desire. 



The Virginia Exiles. 157 

The prisoners were allowed to receive their 
friends with great freedom, and made the most 
use of their few days of captivity to remonstrate 
on all sides against their arrest. The first protest 
was addressed to the Supreme Executive Council 
of Pennsylvania, by whose order they were im- 
prisoned : " We are advised, and from our own 
knowledge of our rights and privileges as free- 
men are assured, that your issuing of this order 
is arbitrary, unjust and illegal, and therefore we 
believe it is our duty, in clear and express terms, 
to remonstrate against it." A more lengthy and 
formal protest, signed by all the prisoners, fol- 
lowed a little later, ending with the paragraphs: 

In the name therefore of the whole body of the freemen 
of Pennsylvania, whose liberties are radically struck at, by 
this arbitrary imprisonment of us their unoffending fellow 
citizens we demand an audience that so our innocence may 
appear and persecution give place to justice. 

But if regardless of every sacred obligation by which 
men are bound to each other in society, and by that Con- 
stitution by which you profess to govern, which you have 
so loudly magnified for the free spirit it breathes you are 
still determined to proceed, be the appeal to the righteous 
people of all the earth for the integrity of our hearts and 
the unparalleled tyranny of your measures. 

These papers produced no effect on the Coun- 
cil, even to the extent of granting a public hear- 
ing, so the prisoners addressed Congress in a sim- 
ilar vein, asseverating their innocence of any 



158 Quakers in ilie Eevolution. 

treasonable actions, their unshaken conviction 
that all wars are unlawful for Christians, and a 
willingness to suffer anything in support of this 
testimony. 

Following this they issued a printed '' Address 
to the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania," in which 
they recapitulated the history of their arrest and 
detention : 

"Rut a fe-u- days since the scene opened and we the sub- 
scribers were called upon by persons, not known as public 
officers of justice to put our names to a paper " promising 
not to depart from our dAvelling houses, and to be ready to 
appear on the demand of the President and Council of the 
State of Pennsylvania and to engage to refrain from doing 
anything injurious to the United free states of North 
America by speaking, writing or otherwise, and from giv- 
ing intelligence to the commander of the British forces, or 
any other person whatever concerning public affairs." 

Conscious of our innocence in respect to the charges in- 
sinuated in this paper against us, and unwilling to part 
with the liberty of breathing the free air, and following 
our lawful business beyond the narrow limits of our houses, 
disclaiming to be considered in so odious a light as men 
who by crimes had forfeited our common and inherent 
rights, we refused to become voluntary prisoners and re- 
jected the proposal. 

The Council's answer to these various appeals 
Avas to resolve : 

That such of the persons now confined in the Lodge as 
shall take iS: subscribe the oath or affirmation to wit: 

"T do swear for affirm) tliat T will be faithful and bear 
true allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as 
a free and independent State " shall be discharged. 



The Virginia Exiles. 159 

To this suggestion they replied : 

If you had a right to make such a proposition we think 
it very improper to be made to men in our situation. You 
have first deprived us of our liberty on one pretence which 
finding you are not able to justify you waive and require 
of us as a condition of our enlargement that we should 
confess ourselves men of suspicious characters by doing 
what ought not to be expected by innocent persons. 

After another solemn declaration of innocence, 
signed alike by Friends and Episcopalians, of any 
correspondence with the British forces, they 
could do nothing more than to accept the deci- 
sion of the Council, which w^as: 

That the persons whose names are mentioned above be 
without further delay removed to Staunton in Virginia 
there to be treated according to their characters and sta- 
tions so far as may be consistent with the security of their 
persons. 

With the exception of the substitution of Win- 
chester for Staunton, this sentence was carried 
out, notwithstanding that a writ of habeas corpus 
was allowed by Chief Justice McKean, which the 
State authorities chose to disregard. 

The whole proceeding was, of course, grossly 
illegal, but Sir William Howe and his army were 
approaching the city, and the measure was jus- 
tified in the opinion of Congress and the Council 
by military necessity. 

It is difficult to see what was gained. The 



160 Quakers in the Bevolution. 

arrest certainly did not conciliate or intimidate 
other Qnakers; it did not interfere in the slight- 
est degree with the plans of the British. It did 
please the enemies of the Qnakers, long in a 
hopeless minority in the Province, and again and 
again defeated, but now in power. It satisfied a 
body of extreme " Constitutionalists,'' which not 
only had old grudges to pay against Quakers and 
churchmen, the Pembertons and Provost Smith, 
but were striving also to discredit positive revolu- 
tionists of a moderate class like Robert Morris 
and James AVilson. It sent into banishment for 
eight months a company of the best men of 
Philadelphia, whose fault was that they had 
urged their fellow-members not to violate the 
long-established principles of their church 
against war and revolution, and they must be 
slow to appreciate Quaker character and Quaker 
history who could believe that persecution would 
weaken their hold on these principles. It only 
induced them to close up their ranks and trust 
their dogmas more implicitly. 

By the time the involuntary emigrants were 
ready to start the number had simmered down to 
twenty, of whom seventeen were Friends. Some 
had declared their allegiance and been dis- 
charged. The twenty were Israel, James and 



The Virginia Exiles. 161 

John Pernberton, Thomas Wharton, Thomas, 
Miers, and Samuel Fisher, John Himt, Edward 
Penington, Henry Drinker, Samuel Jervis, 
Thomas Affleck, William Drewett Smith, 
Charles Pleasants, Owen Jones, Jr., Thomas 
Gilpin, Thomas Pike, William Smith, Elijah 
Brow^n and Charles Eddy. They w^ere loaded 
into wagons and conveyed through Reading and 
Carlisle to Winchester, where they were retained 
in a very loose confinement, and allowed to select 
their own boarding houses, for the State refused 
any appropriation for the expenses. Indeed, 
upon their release in the spring the Council or- 
dered. 

That the whole expenses of arresting and confining the 
prisoners sent to Virginia, the expenses of their journey 
and all other incidental charges be paid by the said pris- 
oners. 

The prisoners refused to give any promises, 
but soon gained the confidence of their keepers 
and w^ere told that they might go where they 
pleased within six miles of Winchester. They 
attended meetings, strengthened their brethren, 
received their friends and wrote abundant let- 
ters. They kept a joint journal, whicli has been 
published. They softened the harsh feelings 
wdth which they were received by the people, 
and were accused of influencing the neighbor- 



162 Quakers in the Revolution. 

hood against the acceptance of Continental 
money. The country afforded few comforts, 
and some of them were men who were hardly 
able to afford the expenses of transportation — a 
great matter in those days. Their families were 
within the lines of two armies, and were seldom 
heard from, and some were sick. The affair — 
while it might have been worse — was a serious 
deprivation to all of them. 

The haste with which their banishment was 
decreed, and the uncertainty as to its duration, 
prevented a sufficient supply of clothing being 
taken by some of them, and that inclement win- 
ter, Avhich caused such suffering at Yalley Forge, 
did not leave untouched the Virginia exiles, used, 
as many of them were, to the solace of Philadel- 
phia homes — then the most comfortable, if not 
the most luxurious, of the continent. In Third 
month, 1778, Thomas Gilpin died of acute lung 
trouble, and was buried in Virginia, advising his 
companions to be faithful to their convictions. 
Shortly aftersvard John Hunt followed him to 
the grave. He was an elderly man, and had 
made his first acquaintances in America when he 
came over in 1756, appointed by London Yearly 
Meeting to advise Friends to resign their places 
in the Assembly during the trying days of the 



The Virginia Exiles. 163 

French and Indian wars. His leg mortified and 
had to be amputated. The doctor told him he 
bore the operation like a hero. " Rather, I hope, 
like a Christian," said the doomed man. 

In the meantime their friends at home were 
not idle. The Yearly Meeting, which occurred 
shortly after the banishment, issued an address 
in explanation of its position: 

A number of our friends having been imprisoned and ban- 
ished unheard from their families under a charge and in- 
sinuation that they have in their general conduct and con- 
versation evidenced a disposition inimical to the cause of 
America, and from some publications intimating that there 
is strong reason to apprehend that these persons maintain 
a correspondence highly prejudicial to the public safety, 
may induce a belief that we have in our conduct departed 
from the peaceable principles which we profess; and ap- 
prehending that the minds of some may hereby be misled, 
for the clearing of truth, we think it necessary publickly 
to declare that we are led out of all wars and lightings 
by the principles of grace and truth in our own minds by 
which we are restrained either as private members of so- 
ciety, or in any of our meetings with holding a corre- 
spondence with either army, but are concerned to spread 
the testimony of truth and peaceable doctrines of Christ, 
to seek the good of all, to keep a conscience void of offence 
towards God and man, to promote the kingdom of the Mes- 
siah which we pray may come and be experienced in indi- 
viduals, in kingdoms and nations, that they may beat their 
swords into plow shares, and their spears into pruning 
hooks, and nation not lift sword against nation neither 
learn war any more. And we deny in general terms all 
charges and insinuations which in any degree clash with 
this our profession. 

As to a nameless paper lately published said to be dated 



164 Qual'ers in the Eevolution. 

at Spanktown yearly meeting and found among the bag- 
gage on Staten Island every person who is acquainted with 
our stile may be convinced it was never wrote at any of our 
meetings or by any of our friends. Besides there is no 
meeting throughout our whole society of that name nor 
was that letter or any one like it, ever wrote in any of our 
meetings since we were a people. 

We therefore solemnly deny the said letter and wish that 
those who have assumed a hctitious character to write un- 
der whether with a view to injure us or cover themselves 
might find it their place to clear us of this charge by stat- 
ing the truth. 

As from the knoAvledge we have from our banished friends 
and the best information we have been able to obtain we 
are convinced they have done nothing to forfeit their just 
right to liberty; we fervently desire that all those who have 
any hand in sending them into banishment might weightily 
consider the tendency of their own conduct and how con- 
trary it is to the doctrines and example of our Lord and 
Law Giver Jesus Christ and do them that justice which 
their case requires by restoring them to their afflicted fami- 
lies and friends. And this we are well assured will conduce 
more to their peace than keeping them in exile. We give 
forth this admonition in the fear of God and not only with 
a view to the relief of our friends but also to the real in- 
terest of those concerned in their banishment. 

Having been favored to meet to transact the affairs of our 
religious society which relate to the promotion of the cause 
of truth and righteousness we have felt a renewed concern 
for the good and happiness of mankind in general, and in 
the love of the gospel have issued forth this testimony for 
the clearing ourselves and our friends and the warning of 
those who from groundless suspicions and mistaken notions 
concerning us may be persuaded to seek our hurt to the 
wounding of their own souls and the loss of the community. 

The Meeting for Sulferiiiiis was concerned 
about the seizure of the minutes of various meet- 



The Virginia Exiles. 165 

ings, and appointed a committee to secure their 
return. They reported that they called on their 
erstwhile fellow-member, now Secretary of the 
Council, Timothy Matlack, through whom all the 
proceedings, both as to the capture of papers 
and arrest and banishment of the Friends had 
passed, and procured all but three, " which Tim- 
othy alleged were in possession of Congress." 
These three were " the rough draft of the epistle 
of the 21st day of Twelfth month last; report 
from the Quarterly Meeting held at Rahway the 
18th of last month, setting forth the sufferings of 
Friends on account of our religious testimonies 
and principles, and the sheet of the rough min- 
utes of this meeting." Congress, no doubt, re- 
ceived some enlightenment from these as to the 
stand Friends had taken, but the belief must 
have been dispelled from their minds that the 
meetings were plotting to aid the cause of the 
King, and they soon returned all the papers. 

The death of two of the exiles and the sickness 
of others renewed the efforts of their friends at 
home for their release, and seems also to have 
touched the hearts of the Executive Council. A 
committee from Chester County went to Lancas- 
ter to attempt to influence the Assembly, then 



166 Quakers in the Revolution. 

sitting there, to aid in tlie cause. Before hear- 
ing them that body propounded two questions, to 
which they demanded formal answers : 

WTietlier you acknowledge the present Assembly to be the 
representatives of the people of this State, chosen for the 
purpose of legislation? 

Whether you believe the people of this state are bound 
to a due observance of the laws made by this Assembly? 

Their answers were cautious, and probably did 
not aid in the immediate object they had in 
view : 

We believe the present assembly to be representatives of 
a body of the people of Pennsylvania chosen for the pur- 
pose of legislation. 

We believe it our duty to obey the principle of Grace and 
Truth in our own hearts, which is the fulfilling of all laws 
established on justice and righteousness. Where any de- 
crees are made not having their foundation thereon they 
operate against the virtu.ous and give liberty to the licen- 
tious which unavoidably brings on general calamity. Al- 
though we think it our duty to bear testimony against all 
unrighteousness yet it hath ever been our principle and 
practice either actively or passively to submit to the power 
which in the course of Providence we live under. 

More effective proved to be the visit of four of 
the wives of the exiles to Lancaster. The re- 
sult was the minute of Congress, sent by Charles 
Thomson to James Pemberton: 

In Congress 16 March 1778. 
Resolved that the Board of War be directed to deliver 
over to the President and Council of Pennsylvania the 
prisoners sent from that State to Virginia. 



The Virginia Exiles. 167 

After a leisurely consideration of twenty-three 
days the Council ordered that the prisoners 
should be released. The orders, when they 
came, were couched in most respectful language : 

It is reported that several of these gentlemen are in a 
bad state of health and unfit to travel; if you find this to 
be the ease, they must be left where they are for the 
present. Those of them who are in health you are to bring 
with you treating them on the road with that polite at- 
tention and care which is due to men who act on the purest 
motives, to gentlemen whose stations in life entitle them 
to respect however they may differ in political sentiments 
from those in whose power they are. You will please to 
give them every aid in your power by procuring the neces- 
sary means of traveling in wagons or otherwise, with such 
baggage as may be convenient for them on the road. 

Here was a long-delayed acknowledgment of 
the honesty and sincerity of the motives of the 
prisoners, and a practical withdrawal of the 
charges against them. 

The prisoners' wdves had sent a preliminary 

letter to General Washington, dated Third 

month 31st: 

Esteemed Friend 

The pressing necessity of an application to thee when per- 
haps thy other engagements of importance may by it be 
interrupted I hope will plead my excuse. It is on behalf 
of myself and the rest of the suffering and afflicted parents 
wives and near connections of our beloved husbands now 
in banishment at Winchester. What adds to our distress 
in this sorrowful circumstance is the word we have lately 
received of the removal of one of them by death and that 



168 Quakers in tJie Revolution. 

divers of them are much indisposed; and as we find they are 
in want of necessaries for sick people we desire the favor of 
General Washington to grant a protection to one or more 
wagons, and for the persons we may employ to go with 
them, in order that they may be accommodated with what 
is suitable for which we shall be much obliged. 

Signed on behalf of the whole, 

Mary Pemberton. 

"Washington sent tlie letter to Governor Whar- 
ton, at Lancaster, with a favorable recommenda- 
tion, and followed it the next day with another 
letter, passing on the four wives of the prisoners, 
who had called on him at Yallej Forge for per- 
mission to pass the lines: 

You will judge of the propriety of permitting them to 
proceed further than Lancaster but from appearances I 
imagine their request may safely be granted, as they seem 
much distressed — humanity pleads strongly in their behalf. 

When the prisoners reached the neighborhood 
of Philadelphia, General Washington kindly sent 
them a pass to go though his lines, and they 
reached their homes without further mishap. In 
all the relations of the General with the Friends 
we find the greatest courtesy on his part, and 
the most respectful language, whether in minutes 
of meetings or in private letters on theirs. He 
understood their scruples and respected them, 
and they felt the reality of his politeness and 
sense of justice. Some Friends from Virginia, 



The Virginia Exiles. 169 

about this time, were arrested for not entering 
the army, — had their muskets tied to them and 
were otherwise severely treated. When they 
reached Washington's camp he immediately had 
them discharged. 

As further illustrating the coiirtesy shown by 
Washington to Friends, his treatment of a com- 
mittee sent to convey to him and General Howe 
their testimony against war is abundant proof. 
It was just after the battle of Germantown, wdien 
the American cause w^as not in the least promis- 
ing, and needed all the positive aid it could pos- 
sibly receive. Their brethren had gone off to 
Virginia under a serious cloud, and many a mili- 
tary commander would have treated them with 
scant forbearance. His own consideration, and 
their reciprocal care to give neither party any 
advantage by the visit, are strikingly shown by 
their report: 

We, the committee appointed by our last yearly meeting 
to visit the generals of the two contending armies on the 
second day of the week following our said meeting pro- 
ceeded to General Howe's headquarters near Germantown 
and had a seasonable opportunity of a conference with him 
and delivered him one of the testimonies issued by the 
yearly meeting and then proceeded on our way to General 
Washington's camp at which we arrived the next day with- 
out meeting Avith any interruption, and being conducted 
to headquarters where the principal officers were assembled 
in Council after waiting some time we were admitted and 



lYO Quakers in the Revolution. 



had a very full opportunity of clearing the society from the 
aspersions which had been invidiously raised against them 
and distributed a number of the testimonies amongst the 
officers, who received and read them and made no objec- 
tions. 

We were much favored and mercifully helped with the 
seasoning \artue of truth and the presence of the master 
was very sensibly felt who made way for us beyond ex- 
pectation, it being a critical and dangerous season. We 
may further add that we were kindly entertained by Gen- 
eral Washington and his officers, but lest on our return, we 
should be examined as to intelligence, we were desired to 
go to Pottsgrove for a few days within which time such 
alterations might take place as to render our return less 
exceptionable to them, where we were accordingly sent un- 
der the guard or care of a single officer & hospitably en- 
tertained by Thomas Rutter a very kind man and others of 
our friends; in this town we had some good service for 
truth. Two of the committee were discharged on sixth 
day afternoon and the other four on seventh day having 
been detained between 3 and 4 days. Two of the Friends 
upon coming within the English lines were stopped and 
questioned respecting intelligence about the Americans, 
which they declined to give. They were sent under a guard 
to the Hessian Colonel who commanded at that post, and 
he proposed several questions respecting the American 
Army, which the friends declining to answer, he grew very 
angry rough and uncivil using some harsh reflecting lan- 
guage and ordered a guard to conduct them to the Hessian 
General Kniphausen who appeared more friendly, but he 
not understanding the English language sent them under 
the conduct of a light horseman or trooper to General 
Howe's head quarters at Germantown but upon the two 
friends informing his aide de camps who they were, they 
were dismissed without being further interrogated, so that 
no kind of intelligence was obtained from them, nor any 
departure from the language of the testimony they had de- 
livered. We believe the Lord's hand was in it guarding us 
from improper compliances and bringing us through this 



The Virginia Exiles. 171 

■weighty service though it was a time of close humbling 
baptism. 

As to the charge respecting the intelligence said to have 
been given by Spank Town yearly meeting, we believe Gen- 
eral Washington and all the officers there present, being a 
pretty many were fully satisfied as to Friends' clearness 
and we hope and believe through the Lords blessing, the 
opportunity we had was useful many ways, there having 
been great openness and many observations upon various 
subjects to edification and tending to remove and clear up 
some pi'ejudices which had been imbibed. 

Samuel Emlen, Jr., Joshua Morris, Warner Mifflin, Wm. 
Brown, James Thornton, Nicholas Wain. 

Phila 1, 10th mo. 1778. 

An interesting sequel to this visit is related. 
When Washington Avas President, one of the 
committee — Warner Mifflin, a consin of the 
General's — called upon him. The President re- 
membered him, and adverted to their former in- 
terview. " Mr. Mifflin," he said, " will yon now 
please tell me on what principle jow were op- 
posed to the Revolution? " " Yes, Friend 
Washington ; upon the principle that I should be 
opposed to a change in the present government. 
All that was ever secured by revolution is not 
an adequate compensation for the poor mangled 
soldiers and for the loss of life and limb." " I 
honor your sentiments," replied the President, 
" for there is more in them than mankind has 
generally considered." 



172 Quakers in the Revolution, 



CHAPTER YIII. 

QUAKER SUFFERING. 

Whatever inclinations towards British inter- 
ests may have been stirred np in Quaker breasts 
by the banishment of their Friends were effec- 
tually checked by the behavior of the British 
soldiery in and around Philadelphia during the 
disastrous winter of 1777-78. The revels, in 
high places and low, into which some young 
Friends were drawn, the ruthless disregard of 
personal and property rights, the abuse of their 
fair city, soon alienated the minds of Friends, 
and confirmed them in their view that if they 
could not aid revolution, neither could they aid 
in its active suppression. 

On First month 8th, 1778, the Meeting for 
Sufferings says: 

The violence, plunderings, and devastations of some of 
the soldiers and others attendant upon the British army 
committed in this city and its environs, and more particu- 
larly in their excursions into and marchings through the 
country in contradiction to the proclamations issued out 
by General Howe coming under the solid consideration of 
this meeting, and our minds being dipped into a sympa- 
thy with the sufferers, and feeling a desire that the same 
may be represented to and laid before the General in a 
weighty manner the following friends are appointed, etc. 



Quaker Suffering. 173 



And again, later: 

The spirit of dissipation, levity and profaneness which 
sorrowfully has spread and is spreading, principally pro- 
moted by the military among us in and near the city at this 
time of calamity and distress affecting the minds of friends 
with pain and deep distress, our friends John Pemberton 
at the High street meeting Samuel Smith at the Bank 
and Nicholas Wain at Pine Street on first-day morning 
next are desired to declare our disunity there with and 
to warn and caution our youth and others as truth may 
open the way against going to the entertainments and 
other vain and wanton exhibitions proposed to be made 
so highly inconsistent with our profession and to shun 
the many snares into which they may be liable to fall un- 
less they keep upon their watch. 

In a general report to London Friends of tlie 
condition of things, dated Second month 26th, 
they further say, charging both sides impar- 
tially: 

This city and its environs are at present under military 
government and the intercourse between us and the 
country much interrupted; but Country friends sometimes 
are favored to get to our meetings, whereby we have some 
opportunities of conference upon matters respecting our 
religious testimony to the edifycation and encouragement 
of one another. Our Quarterly Meeting held in the early 
part of this month was large considering our present cir- 
cumstances and some Friends from every Monthly Meet- 
ing belonging to it attended, some of whom live about 
sixty miles from hence. 

In this city we have not lately suffered any personal 
injuries but many friends and others have sustained losses 
to a very considerable amount in their properties. In the 
country over which the Government lately set up instead of 
our late excellent constitution, exercise power, great finings, 



174 Quakers in the Revolution. 

imprisonments and various other distresses have been in- 
flicted upon many, who cannot for conscience sake join in 
their measures. 

Friends very generally have kept their habitations under 
all the prevailing commotions, some few upon strong 
motives have taken refuge within the English lines and 
a few from apprehensions of difficulties in procuring the 
necessaries for supporting their families have removed out 
of this city into the country. 

The friends who were banished from hence to Virginia 
are well accommodated and supplied at their own charge 
at j)rivate houses and some of them at friends houses 
near Winchester, they are suffered to ride six miles, 
within the compass of which there are two meetings 
besides which they keep meetings on first-day and also a 
week-day meeting which is attended by some not professing 
with us, and many of the inhabitants lately seem favour- 
ably disposed towards them. It was expected they would 
have been removed near 100 miles further from hence to 
Staunton, the place of their original destination but the 
order for their removal is at present suspended. Endeavours 
have been used to obtain their release but without the 
desired effect. The keeping them in exile is severe and 
unjust, but patience must be exercised till the Lord make 
way for their deliverance in his own time. 

By laws lately made in New Jersey, the male inhabitants 
are forbid under pain of death and women under the 
penalty of £300 fine or 12 months imprisonment from 
coming within the English lines without a special license 
which is seldom granted so that Friends are prevented 
from coming to this city from thence, but we are well 
informed they have been subjected to very great suffer- 
ings both in person and estate in that province. 

The opposition of the Friends, as we have 
seen, extended not only to actual participation in 
war, but to paying war taxes, subscribing to tests 



Quaker Suffering. 175 

of allegiance, and supplying provisions to the 
army, except where the purpose was to relieve 
suffering and not to advance the national cause. 
They were very radical, and could see no dis- 
tinction between taking part themselves and 
paying someone else to do their work. They had 
probably gone beyond the stage wherein they 
could say, in the favorite words of the Quaker 
assemblymen of thirty years before, " While we 
do not, as the world is now circumstanced, con- 
demn the use of arms by others, we are princi- 
pled against bearing arms ourselves." Their at- 
titude, however, cannot be fully understood if 
we look upon them as testifying merely against 
war. They had always claimed, in the old Eng- 
lish days of suffering, that they were different 
from most other dissenters, because under no cir- 
cumstances could they plot against the king. 
They would suffer indefinitely rather than obey 
an unrighteous law, but no Quaker, no matter 
how outrageously he was treated, was ever in any 
conspiracy against the existing government. 
The revolutionary movement was a plot against 
the recognized English authority. It was not 
their method of resistance to tyranny, and they 
would not touch it nor support it. When peace 
was declared, all their sense of unwavering alle- 



176 Quakers in the Revolution. 

giance was transferred to the new government, 
and they had no lancor stored np against its ex- 
ponents, though it required years to live down 
the reciprocal feeling towards themselves. 

Unquestionably, they were very unpopular 
with the mass of the people of strong American 
sympathies during the war, and those who con- 
trolled the political destinies of the State of 
Pennsylvania did nothing to shield them. On 
the contrary, they turned upon a number of 
men, who were undoubtedly honest and con- 
scientious, the terrors of jails, fines and serious 
distraint of goods, for their unwillingness to take 
part in the revolutionary proceedings. The 
Meeting for Suiferings reported distraints 
amounting to £9,500 in 1778. By the end oi 
the war, the aggregate reached at least £35,000 
The demand to subscribe to the test of allegiano/> 
to the State of Pennsylvania was followed a\ 
first by imprisonment, which served to show that 
some Quakers at least were made of the same 
unconquerable stuff as their ancestors of a cen- 
tury before. Three of them were kept in Lonv 
caster jail for fifteen months for this cause, and 
when finally ordered to be released they refused 
to pay the jailer's fees, for they said they were 
convicted neither by their consciences nor by 



Quaher Suffering. 177 

any fair trial, so they would not contribute to 
the expenses of the iniquitous imprisonment. 
They were, however, released. 

The law, which filled the prisons and yet added 
nothing to the coffers of the government, was un- 
satisfactory, so it was abolished, and fines im- 
posed to be collected by distraint. In one Quar- 
terly Meeting (Western) over $08,000 was in 
this way levied between 1778 and 1786, for the 
collections went on long after the war was over. 
In 1781 the Yearly Meeting could say : "The 
sufferings of Friends in these parts have much 
increased, and continue increasing in a manner 
which to ontward prospect looks ruinous." 

If the State government had thought to intim- 
idate the Friends by their imprisonments at Lan- 
caster and elsewhere, and their banishment to 
Virginia, or to stop the mouth of the meetings in 
their advices to take no part in the American 
cause, they were greatly disappointed. 

Shortly after the return of the exiles, they 
themselves largely participating, the ]\reeting for 
Sufferings issued another minute, not less objec- 
tionable from the patriot standpoint than any 
which had preceded it, urging Friends to sub- 
scribe to no tests, and to give no aid to the war. 
There was also formed at this time a committee 



178 Quakers in the Revolution. 

to collect all cases of sufferings throughout the 
Yearly Meeting; from the minutes of which can 
be gained a very detailed account of the peculiar 
difficulties of the country Friends.^ The min- 
ute was as follows : 

The committee having considered the cases of the six 
friends now imprisoned in the common jail at Lancaster, 
and being fully convinced that they are suffering for the 
testimony of a good conscience, being by religious consider- 
ations restrained from complying Avith the injunctions pre- 
scribed by some of the laws lately enacted in Pennsylvania 
we are united in believing that it is our duty to lay their 
cases and the weight of their sufferings before those who 
have committed them to prison and should likewise apply 
to the Executive Council of Pennsylvania and endeavor 
to obtain their release, and we therefore propose that 
some judicious friends should be desired to apply to the 
Magistrate who committed them to prison and some 
others should attend the said Council and in such manner 
as they may be enabled in the wisdom of truth perform 
this service either in person or writing as on considera- 
tion they may judge most expedient. 

And on consideration of what is necessary to be proposed 
to Friends in general on the subject of the declaration of 

* For instance: 

" From John Ferree four horse creatures, thirteen cattle, 
seven and a half bushels of wheat, twenty of clean rye, one 
stack of do., forty bushels of corn, two stacks of oats and 
one of hay. £187 7 0." 

" They also took from Joshua Sharpless one blanket 
worth 10s. and left money with his son a lad; but Joshua 
afterwards sent the money to them." This was in 1777, 
when the army was scouring the country for blankets. 
There are many similar records. The Friends uniformly 
refused to sell to the army. 



Quaker Suffering. 179 



allegiance and abjuration required by some late laws passed 
by the legislatures who now preside in Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey, having several times met and deliberated 
thereon, we have the satisfaction to find we are united in 
judgment that consistent with our religious principles we 
cannot comply with the requisitions of those laws, as we 
cannot be instrumental in setting up or pulling down of any 
government but it becomes us to shew forth a peaceable 
and meek behaviour to all men, seeking their good, and to 
live a useful sober and religious life without joining our- 
selves with any parties in war or with the spirit of strife 
and contention now prevailing and believe that if our 
conduct is thus uniform and steady and our hopes fixed on 
the omnipotent arm for relief, that in time he will amply 
reward us with lasting peace which hath been the experi- 
ence of our friends in time past and we hope is of some 
who are now under sufferings. In order to communicate 
this union of sentiment on so important a subject and to 
preserve our brethren in religious profession from wound- 
ing their own minds and bringing burthens upon themselves 
and others, we think it expedient to recommend to the 
committees appointed in the several Monthly Meetings to 
assist in suffering cases in pursuance of the advice of our 
Yearly Meeting; with other faithful Friends speedily to 
appoint a solid meeting or meetings of conference with 
each other in the several Quarters, in which the grounds 
of our principles on this head may be opened and our 
objections against complying with those laws fully ex- 
plained and a united concern maintained to strengthen 
each other in the way of truth and righteousness and to 
warn and caution in the spirit of love and meekness those 
who may be in danger of deviating. 



This was followed up by an appeal to the As- 
sembly to respect the consciences of that people 
who, in the day of their power, had been so tol- 
erant of others: 



180 Quakers in the Revolution. 

The government of the consciences of men is the prerog- 
ative of the almightj^ God who will not give his glory to 
another. Every encroachment upon this his prerogative 
is offensive to his spirit, and he will not hold them 
guiltless who invade it but will sooner or later manifest 
his displeasure to all who persist therein. 

These truths we doubt not will obtain the assent of 
every considerate mind. 

The immediate occasion of our now applying to you is, 
we have received accounts from different places that a 
number of our friends have been and are imprisoned, some 
for refusing to pay the fines imposed in lieu of personal 
services in the present war and others for refusing to 
take the test prescribed by some laws lately made. The 
ground of our refusal is a religious scruple in our minds 
against such compliance not from obstinacy or any other 
motive than a desire of keeping a conscience void of offence 
towards God, which we cannot without a steady adherence 
to our peaceable principles and testimony against wars 
and fightings founded on the precepts and example of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace by a conformity 
to which we are bound to live a peaceable and quiet life 
and restrained from making any declarations or entering 
into any engagements as parties in the present unsettled 
state of public affairs. 

We fervently desire you may consider the generous and 
liberal foundation of the charter and laws agreed upon in 
England between our first worthy Proprietary William 
Penn and our ancestors whereby they apprehended reli- 
gious and civil liberty would be secured inviolate to them- 
selves and their posterity, so that Pensilvania hath since 
been considered an asylum for men of tender con- 
sciences and many of the most useful people have resorted 
hither in expectation of enjoying freedom from the per- 
secution they suffered in their native countries. 

We believe every attempt to abridge us of that liberty 
will be a departure from the true si)irit of government 
which ought to influence all well regulated legislatures and 
also destructive of the real interest and good of the com- 



Quaker Suffering. 181 

munity and therefore desire the laws which have a ten- 
dency to oppress tender consciences may be repealed so 
that those who live peaceably may not be further disturbed 
or molested but permitted to enjoy the rights and immuni- 
ties which their forefathers purchased through much 
suffering and difficulty and to continue in the careful 
observation of the great duty of the religious instruction 
and education of the youth from which by one part of 
the said laws they are liable to be restrained. 

We hope, on due consideration of what we now offer, 
you will provide for the discharge of such who are in 
bonds for the testimony of a good conscience which may 
prevent others hereafter from suffering in like manner. 

Signed in and by the desire of our said Meeting held at 
Philadelphia the 5th day of the 8th mo., 1778. 

by Nicholas Wain, Clerk. 

There was also considerable inconvenience and 
loss in the nse of the various meeting-lionses for 
barracks and hospitals. Fairhill, in the citv, was 
occupied by the British troops through the win- 
ter of 1777-8. Birmingham house was a hospi- 
tal for the American sick before the battle of 
Brandjwine, and for the British Avounded 
afterwards. Radnor was an American bar- 
racks for some time, and Reading, Valley, 
Gwynedd, Uwchlan and Plymouth all performed 
their service in sheltering the American soldiery. 
At Kennett, near the Brandywine battlefield, we 
find a committee appointed seven days after the 
battle to distribute aid, '^ a concern arisina' in 
this meeting for the distressed inhabitants 



182 Quahers in the Revolution. 

among iis who have suffered by the armies, there- 
fore it is recommended to Friends in general to 
encourage benevolence and charity by distribut- 
ing of their sustenance to such as they think are 
in want." The committee did not find any ex- 
treme cases : " They generally appear to bear 
their sufferings with a good degree of cheerful- 
ness." 

Chester Monthly Meeting, through whose 
limits the two armies had passed, and wdiose 
members had felt the ravages more particularly 
of the British soldiery, on Tenth month 27th, 
1777, records that " Preparative Meetings are 
desired to endeavor to raise subscriptions to be 
applied for the relief of such as are or may be 
hereafter in necessitous circumstances in this 
time of trial and suffering.'' 

AVhen Howe's army passed through the 
highly-tilled fields of the Quaker counties, just 
at the end of a productive harvest, with the 
barns well stored with grain and the houses full 
of every comfort, they made the most of their 
short stay. The irresponsible freebooters seized 
not only such things as might be useful, but 
recklessly destroyed the furniture and carried 
away the female apparel unchecked by their su- 
perior officers. 



Qual^er Suffering. 183 

In the winter the Americans followed, for 
Congressional orders had been given that all sup- 
plies within seventy miles of Valley Forge 
should be used by the anny if needed. These 
were paid for in the depreciated currency of the 
times, but all payment the Quakers refused. 
Their refusal to take the oath of allegiance and 
abjuration increased their chances of being the 
victims of the operations of the American forag- 
ing parties. 

Up to the middle of 1778 no part of the coun- 
try had suffered by the ravages of war so much 
as Philadelphia and its neighborhood, and no 
part of this had been so thoroughly ransacked as 
the strip between the Chesapeake and Philadel- 
phia, over which Howe's army had passed. 

While the British were in the city, an Ameri- 
can order was issued to prevent the attendance 
of Priends at the Yearly Meeting, on the plea 
that these meetings were centres of plotting 
against the government. This was just after the 
Spanktown affair, and even AVashington seemed 
to have entertained some suspicion. General 
Lacey, to whom the orders were given, passed 
them on with the injunction " to fire into those 
who refused to stop when hailed, and leave their 
dead bodies lying in the road." It may have 



184 Quakers in the Revolution. 

been well to stop intercourse on military grounds, 
but the Yearly Meetings were very harmless, 
and no treasonable plots were ever hatched in 
them. 

Another serious difficulty arose from a law 
that all school teachers should take the test, un- 
der heavy penalties. There were at this time a 
considerable number of Quaker schools and 
school teachers. Some closed and some went on 
till thrown into jail for a refusal to pay the fine.* 
This trouble led to another protest to the Assem- 
bly dated Eleventh month 3d, 17Y9: 

To the General Assembly of Pennsylvania: The memorial 
and address of the religious Society called Quakers 
respectfully sheweth: 

That divers laws have been lately enacted which are 
very injurious in their nature, oppressive in the manner of 
execution, and greatly affect us in our religious and civil 
liberties and privileges, particularly a law passed by the 
last Assembly entitled "A further supplement to the test 
laws of this State," in the operation whereof the present 
and succeeding generations are materially interested. We 
therefore apprehend it a duty owing to ourselves and our 
posterity to lay before you the grievances to which we are 
subjected by these laws. 



* Joshua Bennett was committed to Lancaster jail, " he 
having been convicted of having kept school, not having 
taken the oath or afhrmation of allegiance to the State, 
according to law." He was fined £100, but the State got 
no fine and the jailor no fees. 



Quaker Suffering. 



Our predecessors on their early settlement in this part 
of America, being piously concerned for the prosperity of 
the colony and the real wellfare of their posterity, among 
other salutary institutions promoted at their own expence 
the establishment of schools for the instruction of their 
Youth in useful and necessary learning and their education 
in piety and virtue, the practice of which forms the most 
sure basis for perpetuating the enjoyment of Christian 
liberty and essential happiness. 

By the voluntary contributions by the members of our 
religious Society, Schools were set up in which not only 
their children were taught but their liberality hath been 
extended to poor children of other religious denominations 
generally, great numbers of whom have partaken thereof; 
and these schools have been in like manner continued and 
maintained for a long course of years. 

Duty to Almighty God made known in the consciences of 
men and confirmed by the holy Scriptures is an invariable 
rule which should govern their judgment and actions. He 
is the only Lord and Sovereign of Conscience, and to him 
we are accountable for our conduct, as by him all men are 
to be finally judged. By conscience we mean the appre- 
hension and persuasion a man has of his duty to God and 
the liberty of conscience we plead for is a free open pro- 
fession and unmolested exercise of that duty, such a con- 
science as under the influence of divine grace keeps within 
the bounds of morality in all the affairs of human life 
and teacheth to live soberly righteously and godly in the 
world. 

As a religious Society, we have ever held forth the 
Gospel dispensation was introduced for completing the 
happiness of mankind by taking away the occasion of strife 
contention and bloodshed and therefore we all conscien- 
tiously restrained from promoting or joining in wars and 
fightings: and when laws have been made to enforce our 
compliance contrary to the conviction of our consciences, we 
have thought it our duty patiently to suffer though we have 
often been grievously oppressed. Principle we hold 
in this respect requires us to be a peaceable people and 



186 Quakers in the Revolution. 

through the various changes and revolutions which have 
occurred since our religious Societj' has existed, we have 
never been concerned in promoting or abetting any com- 
binations insurrections or parties to endanger the public 
peace or by violence to oppose the authority of government 
apprehending it our duty quietly to submit and peaceably 
to demean ourselves under every government which Divine 
Providence in his unerring wisdom may permit to be placed 
over us; so that no government can have just occasion for 
entertaining fears or jealousies of disturbance or danger 
from us. ]>ut if any professing with us deviate from this 
peaceable princ'ple into a contrary conduct and foment dis- 
cords, feuds or animosities, giving just occasion of un- 
easiness and disr-quiet, we think it our duty, to declare 
against their proceeding. 

By the same divine principle, we are restrained from 
complying with the injunctions and requisitions made on 
us of tests and declarations of fidelity to either party who 
are engaged in actual war lest we contradict by our con- 
duct the profession of our faith. 

It is obvious that in these days of depravity, as in for- 
mer times, because of oaths the land mourns and the mul- 
tiplying the use of them and such solemn engagements ren- 
ders them fami iar, debases the mind of the people and 
adds to the number of those gross evils already lamentably 
prevalent which have drawn down the chastisement of 
heaven on our guilty country. 

We are not actuated by political or party motives; we 
are real friends to our country, who wish its prosperity 
and think a solicitude for the enjoyments of our equitable 
rights, and that invaluable priviledge. Liberty of Conscience, 
free from coercion, cannot be justly deemed unreasonable. 
Many of us and other industrious inhabitants being exposed 
to heavy penalties and sufferings, which are abundantly 
encreased by the rigour of mistaken and unreasonable men 
under the sanction of law, whereby many are allready 
reduced to great straits and threatened with total vxvn, 
the effects of whose imprisonment must at length be very 



Quaker Suffer^ing. 187 

sensibly felt by the community at large through the de- 
cline of cultivation and the necessary employments. 

We have been much abused and vilified by many anony- 
mous publications and our conduct greatly perverted and 
misrepresented by groundless reports and the errors of 
individuals charged upon us as a body in order to render 
us odious to the people and prepossess the minds of 
persons in power against us; being conscious of our inno- 
cence and "submitting our cause to the Lord who judgeth 
righteously" we have preferred patience in bearing the re- 
proach to public contest, not doubting that as the minds 
of the people became more settled and composed, our 
peaceable demeanour would manifest the injustice we suf- 
fered, and being persuaded that on a cool dispassionate 
hearing we should be able to invalidate or remove the 
mistaken suggestions and reports prevailing to our 
prejudice. 

The matters we have now freely laid before you are 
serious and important, which we wish you to consider 
wisely as men and religiously as Christians manifesting 
yourselves friends to true liberty and enemies to perse- 
cution, by repealing the several penal laws affecting tender 
consciences and restoring to us our equitable rights that 
the means of education and instruction of our youth 
which we conceive to be our reasonable and religious 
duty, may not be obstructed and that the oppressed may 
be relieved. In your consideration whereof, we sincerely 
desire that you may seek for and be directed by that 
supreme " wisdom which is pure, peaceable, gentle and 
easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits " ajid 
are your real friends. 

Signed on behalf of a meeting of the Representatives 
of the said people held in Philadelphia the 4th Day of 
the 11 mo 1779. 

John Drinker, Clerk. 

In other respects also tlie Friends seemed to 
have fallen upon evil times. The windows of their 



188 Quahers in the Revolution. 

houses and shops were broken, and other injur- 
ies were perpetrated by the mob " for following 
their lawful occupations on days appointed by 
Congress on pretence of fasting and humilia- 
tion. '^ They would neither weep with those 
who wept nor rejoice with those who rejoiced at 
the command of government. 

On the evening of the 4th of the Seventh month, 1777, 
which day was set apart for the purpose of public feasting 
and rejoicing, to commemorate the anniversary of declar- 
ing these colonies independent of the authority and govern- 
ment of Great Britain, the like abuse was committed on 
the houses of divers friends for declining to illuminate 
them with candles in the windows, a vain practice which 
our religious Society has ever held forth a testimony 
against. 

Then there seemed to be a persistent purpose 
to elect or appoint Friends to offices which it was 
known they would not fill, and fine them for non- 
compliance. All offices were demurred to by 
those in harmony with the Yearly Meeting, but 
places as tax-gatherers were peculiarly objec- 
tionable, for the taxes went to the support of the 
war, and must be forced from conscientious peo- 
ple. 

Some of them also disapproved of handling 
the paper money of the day. The Meeting ap- 
parently went no further than to advise against 
paying off debts in depreciated currency on ac- 



Quaker Suffering. 189 

count of injustice to the creditor, but individuals 
argued that as this money was issued to aid the 
war it was wrong to touch it. "When, however, 
one Friend, after carefully settling a debt in 
hard money at considerable loss to himself, found 
that it was immediately seized by the govern- 
ment as a great addition to its resources, he be- 
gan to question whether his refusal to handle the 
prevailing currency had any virtue in it. 

As an illustration of the great carefulness of 
Friends not to take even an indirect part in Avar, 
we have the following account of Josepli Town- 
send, a young man, who out of curiosity followed 
the British army as it marched past his home 
towards the Brandywine battle: 

I arrived at the bars on the road where I was met 
by several companies of soldiers who were ordered into 
the field to form and prepare for the approaching en- 
gagement. The openings of the bars not being of sufficient 
width to admit them to pass with that expedition which 
the emergency of the case required, a ( Jerman officer on 
horseback ordered the fence to be taken down, and as 
I was near to the spot had to be subject to his requiring as 
he flourished a drawn sword over my head with others 
who stood by. On a removal of the second rail I Avas 
forcibly struck with the impropriety of being active in 
assisting to take the lives of my fellow beings and there- 
fore desisted in proceeding any further in obedience to 
his commands. 

The Yearlv IMoetino- also advised against fur- 



190 Quakers in the Revolution. 

nishing supplies to the army by grinding grain, 
feeding cattle, making weapons, or otherwise 
procuring any profit from traffic with it; also 
against allowing any of their goods to be shipped 
in armed vessels. Truly the way of a conscien- 
tious Quaker in the midst of war is a narrow one, 
and the wonder is that so large a proportion 
were able, in a time of excitement and bitter par- 
tisanship, to agree to recommend to their breth- 
ren, and practice themselves, the advice of the 
following minute : 

So that we may by Divine assistance be mutually help- 
ful in maintaining a conduct uniformly consistent with 
our religious principles, which do not allow of our accept- 
ing of or continuing in any public office or being anyways 
active under the power and authority exercised at this 
time as they appear to be founded in the spirit of war 
and fightings. Friends are therefore exhorted and cau- 
tioned against being concerned in electing or being elected 
to any place of profit or trust under the present commo- 
tion, nor to pay any fine penalty or tax in lieu of personal 
service for carrying on the present war or to consent to or 
allow of our api)rentices children or servants acting 
therein, and carefully to avoid all trade and business tend- 
ing to promote war and particularly against partaking of 
the spoils of war by buying or vending prize goods of any 
kind. 

A little body of Friends had settled on the 
frontiers at Catawissa, and built a meeting- 
house. Ill til is position they were in much more 
difficulty than if in the Quaker counties, be- 



Quaker Suffering. 191 

cause of the long-standing hostile feelings of the 
frontiersmen. They were in the midst of Indian 
ravages, and many of their neighbors had sought 
safety by flight. They, however, remained un- 
armed, and their confidence was justified. Ko 
red man disturbed them. When Moses Roberts, 
a minister, was approaching the meeting-house 
as usual on the first day of the week for their 
quiet worship, he and other leaders of the meet- 
ing were arrested, placed in jail, and without ac- 
cusation or trial informed that their liberation 
could only be secured by offering bail to the ex- 
tent of £10,000. Two of them were sent down 
the Susquehanna in a canoe, and without trial 
were kept in Lancaster jail for eleven months. 
Two months after their arrest a body of armed 
men drove their families out of their houses, 
leaving them without any means of support, and 
seized their property. They were financially 
ruined. The supposition was that they were aid- 
ing the Indians by giving information, a sus- 
picion excited by their immunity from 
molestation in the Indian raids. As they were 
denied a trial then or afterwards, no proof 
on either side can now be adduced, but it 
is almost certain that men of their character 
would not even indirectly assist in the cruel 



192 Quakers in the Revolution. 

Indian attacks on tlieir white brethren. It was 
probably some of the same spirit which animated 
the Paxton boys of 1764 which caused their im- 
prisonment and the spoliation of their goods. 

A still sadder narrative is that of the trial and 
execution of two Friends in Philadelphia in the 
latter part of 1778. AVhen the city was evac- 
uated by the British, most of the Tories, antici- 
pating danger from the temper of the Americans, 
placed themselves safely within the British lines. 
The Quakers, however, remained at their homes. 
The most of them had been passive in their ac- 
tions, even when loyalists at heart, and nothing 
could be laid to their charge. The excited 
populace, however, demanded victims, and they 
were found in two men who had disregarded the 
advice of their meetings and given active aid to 
the royal cause. 

Abraham Carlisle was a carpenter in Phila- 
delphia. During the British occupancy he had 
accepted a commission to superintend passes 
through the British lines. Having large ac- 
quaintance and a good character, he undertook 
this, probably in no mercenary spirit, and, as 
many witnesses testified, with a desire to allevi- 
ate distress, which he succeeded in doing in a 
number of cases. 



Quaker Suffering, 193 

John Koberts was a miller. His mill is still 
standing on Mill Creek, in Lower Merion Town- 
ship, Montgomery County, about ten miles from 
the centre of Philadelphia. He was now nearly 
sixty years old, of perfect integrity, and a benev- 
olent disposition. These were certified to by 
willing witnesses of the highest character, who 
gave many instances of his goodness of heart. 
He was in good standing among Friends and so- 
cially connected with cultivated families within 
the Society. His sympathies were British, and 
when his friends were banished to Virginia he 
became gTeatly excited at the injustice. He 
visited Howe, then marching across Chester 
County, and offered to conduct a body of troops 
to intercept the convoy and release the prisoners. 
Finding himself an object of dislike to his neigh- 
bors, and fearing molestation, he took refuge 
within the lines of the British army. Thence 
he would appear at intervals as guide to a party 
of foragers in their excursions among the farms 
of his locality. His friends claimed this to be 
involuntary, and that he used his influence to 
shield poor people who he knew could not afford 
to part with their goods. His enemies consid- 
ered him the willing agent of the invading araiy 
in pointing out the houses of the friends of the 



194 Quakers in the Revolution. 

American cause. With the records before lis it 
is impossible to determine which view was cor- 
rect. 

The two men were tried before Chief Justice 
McKean, and were convicted of high treason. 

Their age and high standing, their large fam- 
ilies, the prevailing opinion that while techni- 
cally guilty they were sacrificed to an ignoble 
demand for vengeance on many who were far 
more culpable, created great interest in their 
case. Petitions showered into the Executive 
Council in great numbers, asking reprieves. The 
most of the members of the grand and petit 
juries, fortified by the signatures of the justices 
of the court, nearly four hundred other signers 
in the case of Carlisle and nearly one thousand 
in that of Roberts, embracing eminent men in 
the American army and in civil and social posi- 
tions, sent in their urgent appeals. But the 
attempt was futile, and in a public conveyance, 
with their coffins before them and ropes about 
their necks, they were carried to their execution. 

There was the deepest sympathy among 
Friends for the sufferers. The letters of the 
times, when they refer to the case, speak as if the 
Friends had endured an unmerited penalty, by 
an unnecessary, if legal, stretch of authority. 



Quaker Suffering. 195 

Inasmuch as the Yearly Meeting had advised 
strongly against the course of action which had 
brought them into the court, no official protest 
was made. The Meeting for Sufferings ap- 
pointed a committee to write their views of the 
case, but their report does not appear on the min- 
utes till 1785, though it bears the date of Eighth 
month 4th, 1779, and is referred to in contem- 
porary letters. 

After a general introduction, it describes the 
cases as follows: 

One of them was an Inhabitant of this City of a 
reputable moral character, who after the British army 
took possession thereof in the Fall of the year 1777 was 
prevailed upon to accept of an office to grant permitts or 
persons to pass in and out; his acceptance of which station 
and acting therein giving concern to Friends, they ex- 
pressed their uneasiness to him, but their endeavors to 
convince him of his error did not prevail with him to 
decline or withdraw executing it. 

The other being a member of a neighbouring Mo. 
Meeting in the country, we have not learned that any 
religious care or advice was seasonably extended to him; 
he resided at Merion, maintained a reputable character 
among men, well respected for his hospitality, benevolent 
disposition and readiness to serve his neighbors and 
friends, and to administer relief to the afflicted or dis- 
tressed. 

In the 9th mo. 1777, several Friends and others 
of their fellow citizens being unjustly apprehended and 
imprisoned, and afterwards sent into banishment without 
an examination or hearing; suffering his mind to be too 
much moved by this arbitrary violation of civil and 
religious liberty, he hastened away without previously 



196 Quakers in the Revolution. 



consulting with them, to give intelligence thereof to the 
General of the British Army then on their march towards 
this city, in hope to frustrate the intention of sending 
them into exile; which proceeding of his, when it became 
known, gave sensible pain and concern to Friends. Some 
time after his return from this journey he was seen in 
company with the English Army, or parties of them, in 
some of their marches or enterprizes not far distant from 
the city, but he allways insisted this was against his 
will, and that he was forcibly compelled to it, which also 
appears by the evidence given at his trial; but these parts 
of his conduct furnished occasion for the prosecution 
against him. 

After the British Army evacuated this city in the Sixth 
month, 1778, their opponents returned, and resuming their 
power, these two members were in a short time arraigned 
with divers other persons, for high Treason, and after 
a trial were by a jury declared guilty, sentenced to be 
executed and their estates confiscated to the Government. 

Having perused a copy of the evidence taken at their 
trial, we find it to be a very contradictory, and dis- 
cover clear indications of a party spirit, and that they 
were prosecuted with great severity and rigour is also 
apparent, the punishment inflicted far exceeding the 
nature of their offence; and that this was the general 
sense of the people was demonstrated by great numbers 
of all rank uniting their interests and influence for saving 
their lives by petitions and divers personal applications 
to the persons in power who held the authority over 
them; but they proved inexorable, alledging political 
reasons for rejecting those ardent solicitations. NotAvith- 
standing they were members of our religious Society 
Avhom we respected and commiserated in their distressed 
situation yet as through their inadvertence to the prin- 
ciples of Divine Grace, and overlooking the repeated 
advice and caution given forth by Friends they were suf- 
fered to fall into such error and deviation, which occasioned 
great trouble of mind and aflliction to their brethren, and 
affected the reputation of truth, this meeting or any other 



Quaker Suffering. 197 

was restrained from interposing in their favour or vindica- 
tion, as is our duty and usual care when our brethren are 
subjected to suffering or persecution for rigliteousness sake 
and the testimony of a good conscience; nevertheless we 
were sensibly touched with much sympathy toward them, 
which was manifested by the repeated visits of divers 
Friends who were religiously concerned for their wellfare, 
some of whom have informed us that through the merci- 
ful visitation of Divine Kindness they were favoured with 
a sense of their deviation from that rectitude and stability 
of conduct which our peaceable Christian principles re- 
quire; and John Roberts at one time with earnestness 
expressed, " that he had gone beyond the line, and seen 
his deviation, and if his life was spared he should spend it 
differently." 

And Abraham Carlisle said, " that he saw the 
station he had filled and acted in, in a different light, and 
that he had been under a cloud when he thought he was 
doing right " ; and on some further conversation respect- 
ing the concern and burthen he had brought on Friend>j 
by omitting to give attention to some early hints and 
advice, he appeared disposed to acknowledge his error in 
writing; and at another time expressed " that he was very 
sorry he had given any uneasiness to Friends, as he always 
had a regard to the Society." It also appears that near 
the close of their time, from the disposition of mind attend- 
ing them, there is grounds to hope and believe they were, 
through Divine Mercy, prepared for their awful, solemn 
change, expressing their resignation thereto, forgiveness of 
those who sought their destruction, and their desire that 
all men might timely and happily experience redemption 
from the evils of the world, evidencing by their sentiments 
and the tranquil state of their minds, that they were not 
left comfortless in the hour of extremity. 

In reply to an address of Friends to the Penn- 
sylvania Assembly, asking protection against 
persecutions for conscience' sake, that body de- 



198 Quakers in the Revolution. 

siring a strict definition of their principles and 
intentions with regard to the new government, 
sent a set of questions to which they desired 
categorical answers in writing: 

1. Do you acknowledge the Supreme Legislative Power 
of the State rightfully and lawfully vested in the present 
House of Representatives met in Assembly? 

2. Do you acknowledge the Supreme Executive Power of 
the State to be lawfully and rightfully vested in the present 
President and Council? 

3. Do you acknowledge and agree that the same 
obedience and respect is due to these bodies respectively 
that you formerly paid and acknowledged to the Governor 
and Assembly respectively while Pennsylvania was depen- 
dent on Great Britain? 

4. Are you willing and do you agree to render the same 
respect and obedience you rendered Governor and As- 
sembly in Pa. before the present war between Great Britain 
and America? 

5. Do you consider yourselves now living under the 
laws of the State with regard to your personal liberty and 
property? 

6. Do you admit it to be the right of the governed to 
resist the Governors when the powers of Government are 
used to the oppression and destruction of the governed? 

7. Do you or do you not deem the laws passed by the 
King and Parliament of Gt. Britain for taxing this coun- 
try, prohibiting its trade, sending its inhabitants to Gt. 
Britain for trial, oppressive and destructive to the people 
of America? 

They also asked why they would not use Con- 
tinental money, and why they made a distinction 
between it and other paper money previously is- 
sued for war purposes* and finally requested 



Quaker Suffering. 199 

copies of all minutes and addresses to the mem- 
bers and to other Yearly Meetings bearing on the 
question of allegiance. 

To these requests the Ifeeting for Sufferings 
replied that they were a religious, not a political, 
body, and that the inquisition into their opin- 
ions was entirely without precedent in America. 
Individually they had political opinions, but col- 
lectively they had only moral and religious opin- 
ions, to which the world was welcome. 

They had always believed government to be 
a Divine ordinance, and Governors who ruled 
well worthy of all honor, nevertheless that con- 
science must be respected as supreme over all 
human laws. They were opposed to war, and 
their opposition was founded on the Gospel, 
which pointed to the approaching reign of uni- 
versal peace, love and harmony. 

They had declined to take any part on either 
side of the existing contest or to join in any way 
to promote disturbance, and many had refused 
the payment of war taxes for a long time before 
the Revolution. 

Their papers had been seized in 1777, and re- 
turned because nothing seditious was found in 
them. 

Finally, they said their desire was to develop 



200 Quakers in the Revolution. 

such a temper of mind as would enable tliem to 
forgive all injuries and to prove they are friends 
to all men. 

The Assembly failed in bringing them to de- 
clare themselves, as, owing to the diversity 
among them, it would have been manifestly im- 
possible to do. As many in state authority were 
disowned Friends, who knew exactly the situa- 
tion, it is probable that the questions were really 
intended to foster division or increase popular 
disapproval rather than to elicit information, and 
a general answer was all that could safely be 
given. 

The dislike of the Quakers showed itself in a 
violent outbreak in Philadelphia. The more ex- 
treme of the revolutionalists, under Joseph Reed, 
were in general control during the latter years 
of the war, but at times they could not restrain 
the mob of tlieir own partisans in the streets. 
A general like Mifflin, and signers of thie 
Declaration of Independence like Morris and 
Wilson, were hardly safe in their own city. 
They were too moderate, and hence had 
their doors battered in by the rioters, and were 
in danger of their lives. Under such cir- 
cumstances it is hardly to be expected that 
the Quakers, who had never approved of 



Quaker Suffering. 201 

the Revolution, should be unmolested. The 
feeling came out strongly when they refused 
to illuminate their houses " on the occasion 
of a victory of one of the parties of war over the 
other/' in which general manner they charac- 
terized the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 
1781. Their general unpopularity seemed to 
have weighed on them when they contrasted it 
with their former strength. They were con- 
scious that while never professing to approve of 
the Revolution as a body, they had never op- 
posed it or attempted to resist, nor even to escape 
from its government. They had lived quietly 
at their homes, under American and British oc- 
cupancy, under the rule of moderates and radi- 
cals, opposing no one, and always good and 
peaceable citizens. Their faults, if their actions 
were faults, were negative. Under these cir- 
cumstances it seemed good to them as a matter 
of defence to issue, now that the war was prac- 
tically over, one more address in explanation of 
their course : 

Eleventh mo. 22nd, 1781. 

To the President and Executive Council, the General 

Assembly of Pennsylvania and others whom it may 

concern the following representation on behalf of the 

people called Quakers sheweth: 

That the outrages and violences committed on the 

property and on divers of the persons of the inhabitants 



202 Quakers in the Revolution. 

of Philadelphia of our religious Society by companies of 
licentious people parading the streets, destroying the win- 
dows and doors of our bouses, breaking into and plunder- 
ing some of them on the evening of the 24th of last month 
increases the occasion of our present address to you who 
are in the exercise of the power of civil government, which 
is in itself honourable and originally instituted for the 
support of public peace and good order and the preserva- 
tion of the just rights of the people. 

********** 

It must therefore appear strange and extraordinary in 
the view of candid enquirers that so evident a change and 
contrast have taken place, and that many who are 
the descendants of the first settlers professing the same 
religious principles and connected in interest affection and 
duty to the real good and welfare of our country who 
have never forfeited our birthright should now be vilified 
persecuted and excluded from our just liberties and priv- 
ileges not only by laws calculated to oppress us but the 
execution of them in some placee committed to men of 
avaricious profligate principles who have made a prey of 
the innocent and industrious to the great loss and damage 
of some and the almost ruin of others; scurrilous publica- 
tions and other invidious means have been used by our ad- 
versaries to calumniate and reproach us with opprobrious 
names in order to inflame the minds of the ignorant and im- 
pose on the credulous to our prejudice, when upon an im- 
partial candid examination we trust it will appear that in 
the course of the commotions which have unhappily pre- 
vailed no just cause of offence will be found against us 
but that we have endeavored to maintain our peaceable 
religious principles to preserve a good conscience toward 
God and to manifest our good will to all men. 



The dispensation of war bloodshed and calamity which 
hath been permitted to prevail on the Continent is very 
solemn and awful demanding the most serious and heart- 
felt attention of all ranks and denominations among the 



Quaker Suffering. 203 

people individually to consider and examine how far we 
are each of us really and sincerely engaged to bring forth 
fruits of true repentance and amendment of life agreeable 
to the spirit and doctrine of the gospel. And although we 
have been exposed to great abuse and unchristian treat- 
ment we wish to be enabled through the assistance of 
Divine Grace to cherish in ourselves and inculcate in 
others with whom we have an influence that disposition 
to forgiveness of injuries enjoined by the precept and 
example of Christ our Holy Lawgiver and to manifest 
our desires and endeavors to promote the real good of our 
country and that we are 

Your Friends. 

Notwithstanding their unpopularity they were 
able to report, in 1780, that '' divers persons ol 
sober conduct, professing to be convinced of our 
rehgious principles, have on their application 
been received into membership." In the same 
year they could also announce the practical suc- 
cess of their efforts to support their peaceable 
testimony ; " Care is maintained to preserve our 
ancient testimony against bearing arms or being 
engaged in military services, and many have 
deeply suffered in the distraint of their goods 
and effects on this account." 

They undoubtedly felt that though they had 
suffered much in popular esteem, they had steered 
through a very troubled sea of war and confu- 
sion on a straight line of principle. Their 
testimony against war was kept vital under con- 



204 Quakers in the Revolution. 

ditions where any weakness or compromise 
would have destroyed it. They had suffered for 
it, and had been preserved, and they felt no 
temptation to make any apologies, or look back 
with any regrets. With abundant confidence in 
the solidity of the ground on which they stood, 
they looked confidently forward to the better 
days of peace. Though their ranks were deci- 
mated by the " disownment " of unfaithful 
brethren, the testimony of the Society as a whole 
had been given without fear or equivocation, and 
already some who had left them in the moment 
of excitement were honestly regretful of their 
course, and w^ere asking to be reunited. The 
years following the war were the years of the 
greatest increase in the number of meetings, and 
probably of members, which had been seen in 
Pennsylvania since the early years of the settle- 
ment. 

On which side were Quaker sympathies during 
the Revolutionary war? is a question often asked. 
It is impossible to give a definite answer, but 
there are several guides on which something of 
a judgment may be based. About four hundred, 
perhaps, actively espoused the American side by 
joining the army, accepting positions under the 
revolutionary government, or taking an affirma- 



Quaker Suffering. 206 

tion of allegiance to it, and lost their birthright 
among Friends as a result. Perhaps a score in a 
similar way openly espoused the British cause, 
and also were disowned by their brethren. These 
numbers very likely represented proportions of 
silent sympathizers. The official position was 
one of neutrality, but individually the Friends 
could hardly be neutral. It seems almost certain 
that the men of property and social standing in 
Philadelphia, the Virginia exiles and their close 
associates, like the wealthy merchants of Xew 
York and Boston, were loyalists, though in their 
case passively so.* One gets this impression from 
such sources as Elizabeth Drinker's Diary and 
certain Pemberton letters. The husband of 
Elizabeth Drinker was one of the exiles, and, 
while she writes cautiously, a careful reader can 
hardly doubt her bias. Many of the country 



*In this Province — Pennsylvania — indeed, in Philadelphia, 

there are three persons, a Mr. W , who is very rich 

and very timid; the Provost of the College, Dr. Smith, 
who is supposed to be distracted between a strong passion 
for lawn sleeves and a stronger passion for popularity, 
which is very necessary to support the reputation of his 
Episcopal College, and one Israel Pemberton, Avho is at 
the head of the Quaker interest. These three make an 
interest here which is lukewarm, but they are all obliged 
to lie low for the present."— John Adams' Diary, Vol. I., 
pp. 173-174. June, 1775. 



206 Quakers in the Revolution, 

Friends were probably American in their sympa- 
thies. It is very difficult to show this conclu- 
sively, and only by slight allusions here and there 
is the idea gained. We do not know of any at- 
tacks upon them by the patriots, and it is likely 
that many of them, w^hile too conscientious to go 
with their sons and brothers into the American 
army, held the same general opinions in favor of 
the cause of liberty for which they had con- 
tended so consistently since the days when David 
Lloyd mustered them against William Penn. 

There were, therefore, a few radical Tories, a 
much larger number of radical Friends of the 
Revolution, and the rest were quiet sympathizers 
with one or the other party. In this diversity all 
the moderate men who were really desirous to be 
faithful to the traditional beliefs of their fathers 
could unite on a platform of perfect neutrality 
of action for conscience' sake. 



The Free Quakers, 207 

CHAPTEE IX. 

THE FREE QUAKERS. 

Many of those disowned by the Society for 
espousing actively and sincerely the American 
cause were unable to ally themselves with any 
other religious organization. Quakerism in 
many essential features was so instilled into them 
that they took no satisfaction in the more elab- 
orate forms which characterized other modes of 
formal worship. 

Others were simply irreligious people who 
cared nothing for membership in any denomina- 
tion. In a large number of cases other offences 
were charged against them. They were dis- 
owned for taking up arms and also for non- 
attendance at meetings or for improper or 
immoral conduct. The Society took advantage 
of the opportunity to separate from membership 
those who had not been for a long time up to its 
standard of life. All those who were reckless, 
indifferent or unfortunate, as in all times of ex- 
citement, flocked to one or the other standard, 
and were unceremoniously disowned. It re- 
quired some self-denial and more or less of moral 



208 Quakers in the Revolution. 

courage to withstand the general unpopularity, 
and adhere to the policy the meeting had laid 
down. It will not do, therefore, to assume that 
all or nearly all of the separated members braved 
their ecclesiastical penalties in a spirit of un- 
selfish dedication to a gTeat cause. 

There was also, especially in the beginning of 
the war, a number of young men who, without 
very profound convictions, were earned away 
with the contagious enthusiasm of the times, and 
almost before having time for second thought 
found themselves outside the Society. 

When the war ended some of all classes, find- 
ing that their affections Avere still with Friends, 
sought to return into membership. This could 
only be effected by condemning the violations for 
which disownment had been meted out to them. 
Some found it possible to do this in all sincerity. 

Owen Biddle was a vehement patriot, and lost 
his membership in 1775 for military services. 
Early the next year he became a member of the 
Board of War appointed by the Executive Coun- 
cil of Pennsylvania, and served till the Board 
was disbanded, seventeen months later. Three 
of his eight associates were also disowned 
Friends. Having wealth, learning and position, 
he was an important aid to the patriots through 



The Free Quakers. 209 

the whole war. "When it was over, and his cause 
triumphant, his thoughts underwent a revolu- 
tion. James Pemberton writes of it: 

However, in the midst of troubles, it is comfortable to 
find that some have become weary and find no rest but in 
returning. The instance of O. Biddle shows that miracles 
are not ceased. I was sensible he had long dwelt in 
a painful state of mind but unwilling to bow or confess; 
it is comfortable to hear that he hath at last; and Avith 
his stability believe he will find it better to be a door- 
keeper in the house of his Lord than dwell in the tents of 
wickedness. 

Others had no inclination to apologize and re- 
turn. They were perfectly satisfied with their 
course in serving the American cause in civil 
and military places, and felt that their Quaker- 
ism was not to be impeached on this account. 
They therefore undertook to form a new society, 
" The Religious Society of Friends," by some 
styled the '' Free Quakers," as their first minute 
book records in February, 1781. 

The central figure in the movement was 
Samuel AVetherill, a minister and clerk of the 
meeting for many years. With him were asso- 
ciated Timothy Matlack, a colonel in the army, 
and during the whole war secretary to the Execu- 
tive Council of Pennsylvania; Clement Biddle, 
also a colonel, and quartermaster of the Revolu- 
tionary army ; Christopher Marshall, whose diary 



210 Quakers hi the Bevolution, 

has been published, and two women, Lydia Dar- 
rach and Elizabeth Griscom, who performed 
pecnliar sei'^dces to the American cause, with a 
hundred or more others. 

Lydia Darrach conveyed to Washington infor- 
mation of a plan to surprise his army. During 
the British occupation a company of officers 
were quartered at her house. She was cautioned 
to have all her family in bed on a certain 
evening, as an important conference was to 
be held. The injunction was observed, but she 
herself, quietly listening at the keyhole, heard 
the plans discussed for an attack on Washington 
the following night. Under plea of going to 
Frankford for flour she went on to White Marsh, 
where the American army was encamped, and 
gave timely notice. The attack was foiled, and 
the general, in his disappointment, strove in 
vain to ascertain from Lydia how the scheme 
reached the American general. 

Elizabeth Griscom, afterwards Ross, after- 
wards Claypoole, lived near Second and Arch 
Streets, and supported herself by her needle. 
She made flags for the Continental Congress, and 
tradition says the first Stars and Stripes were 
made by her just before the Declaration of In- 
dependence in 1776. The order of Congress 



The Free Quakers. 211 

directing "her to be paid has been found. She 
lived till 1836, and was the last of the original 
Free Quakers. 

The nev; Society in two respects was in strik- 
ing contrast to the body from which its members 
had been ejected. Xo one was to be disowned 
for any cause. If he were erring there Avas so 
much more need for labor to restore him. He 
was to be encouraged in the performance of all 
civil and military duties for the defence of his 
country. The " discipline " was very brief. It 
allowed the largest liberty of individual thought 
and action, abolished all " offences " like irregu- 
lar marriage, and other formalities; in case of 
actual immorality recognized only the responsi- 
bility to reform, and encouraged reference to the 
civil tribunals in case of controversies. The 
meetings for worship and business were to be 
conducted as in ancient Quaker fashion, and the 
general doctrines, organization and habits of liv- 
ing Avere supposed to include all that was best 
in Quakerism, adapted to the changes which a 
century had wrought in the environment of the 
Society. Even less prominent, however, than in 
the regular body, was any statement of belief, 
and every man was permitted to bo his own creed 
maker. 

One of their early demands was for the use of 



212 Quakers in the Revolution. 

one of the meeting-liouses in the city. " We 
think it proper for us to use, apart from you, one 
of the houses built by Friends in this city. . . . 
We also mean to use the burial ground whenever 
the occasion shall require it." This paper was 
presented to the Monthly Meeting of Friends 
in Philadelphia, on the 27th of July, 1781, 
and was not even read. This being equiv- 
alent to a refusal, the Free Quakers carried the 
case to the Legislature of the State in a form 
which would be likely to ensure their success. 

The sympathies of the Legislature and of the 
people in general were naturally Avith them. 
However, after carrying the question over for 
two sessions, the Assembly wisely decided not to 
interfere. 

On the one hand it was claimed that the regu- 
lar Society had no right to disown for actions 
sanctioned by the law of the land, and that those 
disowned were still in all essentials Friends, and 
hence entitled to a share in Quaker property; on 
the other hand, the right of every Society to 
make its own rules and enforce them when the 
conditions of membership were plainly stated, 
was strongly urged. It was claimed that in vio- 
lating the known order of the church, members 
practically severed the bonds which attached 



The Free Quakers, 213 

them to it, and by their own action excluded 
themselves from its benefits. The State had no 
right to interfere between a church organization 
and a member, for while liberty of conscience 
was a right of the individual, so freedom to make 
and enforce regulations was a prerogative of a 
society, and no individual could impose himself 
upon it except with its consent. 

The whole controversy was not conducted in 
the best of temper. The official papers were 
faultless, but the letters of the time show the 
bitterness of partisan spirit so characteristic of 
religious differences in general. 

Popular sympathy was with the new body, and 
the case was argued before the committee of the 
Assembly in the presence of a great company of 
interested listeners. James Pemberton describes 
the occasion under date of Xinth month 20th, 
1782: 

The committee intending to proceed on Ihe business, 
first asked each party whether they were prepared; on 
our part they were answered that our ISIeeting for Suffer- 
ings, which represented our rehgious Society in the inter- 
val of our Yearly Meeting had appointed us a committee 
to attend on the occasion and having a minute of our 
appointment we were ready to produce it, and we requested 
that Howell and Matlack* should be required to shew to 
the satisfaction of their committee their authority for 



*Jsaac Howell and White Matlack. 



214: Quahers in the Eevolufion. 

complaining and by whom they were deputed; upon which 
some argument ensued and S. Delany the chairman then 
mentioned that two petitions signed by 75 persons who 
had been disowned by the people called Quakers for bearing 
of arms had been presented to the House a few days past, 
and by special order was referred to the consideration of 
the committee, one of which he read importing " that 
they utterly disclaimed the proceedings of the remon- 
strants, were well content that the estate of friends 
might continue under their own direction and praying 
that the request of the remonstrants might not be granted 
and that they looked upon the attempt thus to arraign and 
disturb us an invasion of the rights of toleration and 
religious liberty; which being the voluntary act of the 
petitioners unsolicited by us or any of us that I know 
of was not unfavorable to our cause, T. M.,* on hearing 
these petitions and fearing their effect made reply that if 
two persons only thought themselves aggrieved they had 
an undoubted right to redress but that he could procure 
many hundred to support them and that the signers to 
these opposite petitions might have their names inserted 
in the intended law to exclude them if they chose it. On 
our part it was further urged that the complainants ought 
also to make proof of the legality and justice of their 
claim and wherein they were aggrieved and some points 
of law being stated by X. W.f on the rectitude of this 
proceeding occasioned a debate in the commiitee which 
being in public was some disadvantage to us as they 
had not the opportunity of so fully discussing the matter 
as the nature and importance of it required, and they 
should therefore have considered it among themselves; 
however they concluded to take the opinion of the House 
therefore but to proceed in hearing the complainants, when 
we also pleaded that T. M. should show in what capacity 
he appeared there, whether as counsellor or advocate for 
the remonstrants; whether being Secretary by order of the 

* Timothy Matlack. 
t Nicholas Wain. 



The Free Quahers. 215 



Executive Council or as a party, having at our last inter- 
view acknowledged before our committee that his case 
did not come within the meaning or intent of the bill 
proposed to be brought before the House when liberty for 
it was granted. 

The committee proceeded to hear the complainants who 
produced several testimonies of divers monthly meetings 
against members disowned and some witnesses in support 
of the four first charges in their remonstrance, viz.: " of 
persons being disowned for taking the Test of Allegiance, 
holding of oflEices, bearing of arms and the pajinent of 
taxes; as the testimonies were separately read and appeared 
to be genuine Ave did not disallow them, and in general 
being cautiously expressed they will do us no discredit in 
the view of religious considerate men. On the last charge 
in respect to the pajTnent of taxes their evidences were 
few and very feeble, the testimonies being an account of 
the payments of fines in lieu of personal service and are 
instances of a double tax and fine. They also attempted, 
but ineffectually to prove that some members had been 
urged to renounce their allegiance before a magistrate as 
a condition of their being reinstated in which they will 
appear to have failed when the case is properly stated. 

The committee adjourned to meet again on Fourth-day 
afternoon. In the meantime they reported to the House 
how far they had proceeded and desired their opinion and 
direction of the questions proposed as before mentioned 
that H. and M. should prove their constituents and on 
what they founded their claims upon which the House 
determined to give no further instructions to their com- 
mittee. A debate ensued again on Fourth-day morning 
concerning the business which held late and I suppose 
was earnest. In the afternoon at the time appointed 
our committee went up to the chamber where we found 
the Clerk of the Assembly only except a crowd of people 
who followed us. He delivered us a copy of a minute of 
the House notifying us that there would be no further 
hearing before the committee on that day and told us 
he had orders to deliver a like copy to the remonstrants 
but that the business would be again taken up by the 



216 Qiiahers in the BevoJidion. 

Assembly the same afternoon as it was accordingly and 
concluded to be referred over to the succeeding Assembly 
so that vre have hereby obtained a respite unexpectedly 
and shall have leisure to attend to the weighty concerns 
of our approaching Yearly Meeting. 

Several points brought out in this letter may 
deserve further notice. 

The petition signed by seventy-five disowned 
Friends against disturbing the property rights of 
the main body is an indication that at least that 
many did not desire a permanent separation, 
which would break up the integrity of the So- 
ciety; and though it was stated that a counter 
petition could be procured, signed by '' hun- 
dreds," it is probable that not more than one hun- 
dred were actually associated in the movement. 
A private contemporary letter states that of the 
disowned Priends a majority were opposed to the 
action, and justified their own disownment. 

From an examination of many minute books 
it seems probable that James Pemberton was 
right when he said that members were not dis- 
o\^Tied for the simple payment of taxes to the 
revolutionary government unless they were 
specifically war taxes, or were exacted in lieu of 
personal service. He could not be certain of 
this, for each ^Monthly ^Meeting all over the 
province was to a certain extent a law unto itself 
in these matters. 



The Free Quakers. 217 

The case of the regular Friends was miicli 
aided by the legal knowleilge and acumen of 
Nicholas Wain. Before his active interest in 
Friendly matters he had been one of the shrewd- 
est, the wittiest and the most successful members 
of the Philadelphia bar. In a public meeting 
he had uttered a remarkable prayer of renun- 
ciation of his past ambitions, and gave himself 
over to the service of his church." 

He became exceedingly useful. It is related 
of him that on a certain occasion, during the 
Free Quaker controversy, after a statement from 
certain of the ejected members as to the patriotic 
causes of their disownment, he turned to one of 
them whose well-known cause of stumbling was 
cock-fighting, and, pointing prominently to him 
in silence until the attention of the whole room 
was obtained, said impressively, '^What wast thou 
disowned for ? " A second and a third who hap- 
pened to be present, whose cases were also pub- 
lic, were treated in a similar way, and a marked 
impression was left that some at least of the com- 
plainants were not martvi-s for the sake of 
freedom. 



* A mutilated edition of this prayer is. in Dr. Mitchell's 
novel, '• Hugh Wynne," placed in the mouth of a mythical 
personage named Israel Sharpless. 



218 Quakers in the Revolution. 

The Assembly took no final action, but re- 
ferred the matter to the succeeding session. In 
the meantime something of a conservative reac- 
tion had come over the country. John Dickin- 
son was elected President of Pennsylvania after 
his period of unpopularity and practical banish- 
ment to Delaware, and the new Assembly was 
moderate. Timothy Matlack had lost his polit- 
ical influence. The question was evidently one 
over which a legislative body found it very in- 
convenient to exercise jurisdiction, for a decision 
would have far-reaching consequences, and the 
matter was allowed to drop. 

The Free Quakers had to look to their own 
exertions to provide a meeting-house. A lot was 
purchased at the southwest corner of Arch and 
Fifth Streets, and a building erected, which is 
still standing, and which bears upon it the in- 
scription : 

By general Subscription 
For the Free Quakers, erected 
In the year of our Lord 1783 
Of the Empire 8. 

It is said that when asked the meaning of the 
last line one of them replied, " I tell thee. 
Friend, it is because our country is destined to be 
the great empire over all this world." 



The Free Quakers. 219 

The subscription did not cause much difficulty. 
There was general sympathy with the patriotic 
Quakers, and Washington and Franklin, with 
many other prominent sympathizers, contrib- 
uted to the building. Meetings for worship were 
held in it till 1836. It is now rented, and the 
proceeds used for charitable purposes. 

Many of those who in the days of military ex- 
citement joined in the movement, afterwards re- 
turned to their original fold. Some joined other 
religious bodies. The Free Quakers gradually 
diminished in numbers, and when the meeting- 
house closed, practically ceased to exist as a re- 
ligious body. The descendants of the original 
members, perhaps one hundred and fifty in 
number, still maintain their organization, hold 
a Yearly Meeting, and quietly distribute the in- 
come in educational and charitable work. 

As a peaceful government extended its sway 
over the independent United States, the asperi- 
ties of feeling which had belonged to the revolu- 
tionary era subsided. The conscientiousness 
which had characterized many Friends in their 
refusal to bear arms for the American cause was 
more and more recognized. Their faithfulness 
as members of society in the performance of 
their civic duties, their justice and kindliness, 



220 Quakers in the Revolution. 

their quiet attention to duty and lack of desire 
for selfish preferment, made their rulers feel that 
if they would not fight for or against govern- 
ment, they possessed other qualities which made 
them valuable citizens. When Washington — of 
whom they always spoke with great respect, and 
who appreciated them far better than did those 
militant civilians, the Adamses of Massachusetts 
— became President, in 1789, they sent to him a 
deputation with the f ollow^ing address : 

Being met in our annual assembly for the well ordering 
of the affairs of our religious Society and the promotion of 
universal righteousness our minds have been drawn to 
consider that the Almighty who ruleth in Heaven and in 
the kingdoms of men having permitted a great revolution 
to take place in the government of this country, we are 
fervently concerned that the rulers of the people may be 
favored Avith the council of God; the only sure means to 
enable them to fill tho important trust committed to their 
charge and in an especial manner that Divine wisdom and 
grace vouchsafed from above may qualify thee to fill up 
the duties of the exalted station to which thou art 
appointed. 

We are sensible thou hast obtained a great place in the 
esteem and affection of people of all denominations over 
whom thou presidest, and many eminent talents being com- 
mitted to thy trust we much desire they may be fully 
devoted to the Lord's honor and service, that thus thou 
mayst be a happy instrument in his hands for the sup- 
pression of vice infidelity and irreligion and every species 
of oppression on the persons or concerns of men, so that 
righteousness and i)eace which truly exalt a nation may 
prevail throughout the land as the only solid foundation 
that can be laid for prosperity and happiness. 



The Free Quakers. 221 

The free toleration which the citizens of these States 
enjoy, in the public Avorship of the Almighty agreeably 
to the dictates of their consciences, we esteem among the 
choicest of blessings and we desire to be filled with fervent 
charity for those who differ from us in matters of faith 
and practice, believing that the general assembly of saints 
is composed of the sincere and upright-hearted of all na- 
tions, kingdoms and peoples so we trust we may justly 
claim it from others; — with a full persuasion that the Divine 
principle we profess leads into harmony and concord we 
can take no part in warlike measures on any occasion or 
under any power, but we are bound in conscience to lead 
quiet and peaceable lives in godliness and honesty among 
men, contributing freely our proportion to the indigencies 
of the poor, and to the necessary support of civil govern- 
ment; acknowledging those that rule well to be worthy 
of double honor — having never been chargeable from our 
first establishment as a religious Society with fomenting 
or countenancing tumults or conspiracies, or disrespect to 
those who are placed in authority over us. 

We wish not improperly to intrude on thy time 
or patience nor is it our practice to offer adulation to 
any. But as we are a people whose principles and conduct 
have been misrepresented and traduced we take the liberty 
to assure thee that we feel our hearts affectionately drawTi 
towards thee and those in authority over us with prayers 
that thy presidency may under the blessing of Heaven be 
productive of morality and true religion and that Divine 
Providence may condescend to look down upon our land 
with a propitious eye, and bless the inhabitants with the 
continuance of peace, the dew of heaven, and the fatness of 
the earth and enable us gratefully to acknowledge these 
manifold mercies. 

And it is our earnest concern that he may be pleased 
to grant thee every necessary qualification to fill thy 
weighty and important station to his glory, and that finally 
when all terrestrial honors shall pass aAvay thou and thy 
respectable consort may be found worthy to receive a 



222 Quakers in the Revolution. 

crown of unfading righteousness in the mansions of peace 
and joy forever. 

Nicholas Waln, Clerk. 

To this Washington replied: 

Gentlemen: 

I received with pleasure your affectionate address, and 
thank you for the friendly sentiments and good wishes 
which you express for the success of my administration 
and for my personal happiness. We have reason to rejoice 
in the prospect that the national government, which by 
the power of Divine Providence was formed by the com- 
mon councils and peaceably established by the common 
consent of the people will prove a blessing to every de- 
nomination of them; to render it such my best endeavors 
will not be wanting. Government being among other pur- 
poses instituted to protect the persons and consciences of 
men from oppression it certainly is the duty of rulers 
not only to abstain from it themselves but according to 
their stations to prevent it in others. 

The liberty enjoyed by the people of these States of 
worshipping Almighty God agreeably to their consciences 
is not only among the choicest of their blessings but also 
of their rights. While men perform their social duties 
faithfully they do all that society or the State can with 
propriety expect or demand and remain responsible only 
to their Maker for the religion or mode of faith which they 
may prefer or profess. Your principles and conduct are 
well known to me, and it is doing the people called 
Quakers no more than justice to say that (except their 
declining to share with others in the burthens of common 
defence) there is no denomination among us who are more 
exemplar}' and useful citizens. I assure you very especially 
that in my opinion the conscientious scruples of all men 
should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness; and 
it is my wish and desire that the laws may always be ex- 
tensively accommodated to them as a due regard to the 
protection and essential interest of the nation may justify 
and permit. George Washington. 



The Free Quakers. 223 

With this exchange of letters — on the one 
hand attesting fidelity to the existing administra- 
tion, and on the other carrying a strong endorse- 
ment of the principles which had guided the past 
— the reconciliation between the Quakers and 
the government, which revolutionary events had 
somewhat strained, may be considered to have 
been perfectly accomplished. 



224 Quakers in the Revolution. 



CHAPTER X. 

FEIEXDS AXD SLAVERY. 

The Revolutionary War had for the time be- 
ing ahnost destroyed the influence of Friends 
over the politics of the State they had founded 
and so long controlled. They had opposed a 
war which was waged in support of independ- 
ence and which had been successful. It is true 
that the principles upon which they based their 
conduct had not been especially devised for the 
emergency, but had been firmly and clearly 
enunciated through one hundred years of his- 
tory. The course they took might properly have 
been expected of them by those who had been 
familiar with the record of their past. But to 
many in the nation these principles came as reve- 
lations of a new and dangerous tendency, develop- 
ing a course of action entirely uneqiial to the 
emergencies to which any government might be 
exposed. To others the Quakers seemed to be 
cowards or fanatics or hypocrites, or seekers after 
wealth and ease. 

Xone of these cared to see the Quakers restored 
to the position of influence they had held before 



Friends and Slavery. 225 

the war. Many felt that they had an unsettled 
grudge against them for their refusal to aid in 
the great struggle. The heroes of the war took, 
by virtue of the popular voice, the positions of 
honor and profit. 

Xor did the Quakers seem to wish it other- 
wise. They had had enough of government. 
The movement which began in 1756 against 
holding compromising offices gradually extended 
itself to avoid official connection with the State. 
This tendency was strengthened in the minds of 
the more strenuous Friends by the events of the 
war, and when, after a decade of peace, there 
seemed a disposition to turn again to Friends to 
find representatives in the Pennsylvania legis- 
lature, the Yearly Meeting, in 1791. advised: 

The concern and exercise \rhich formerly attended the 
minds of Friends of this meeting respecting accepting of 
posts either in legislative or executive government or pro- 
moting the choice of members of our religious Society to 
such stations or mixing with others in their human policy 
and contrivance, being now revived, and the minutes and 
advices of the Yearly Meeting in 1758. '62, *63. "64 and "70 
being read, they were recommended to the observance of 
Quarterly and ^lonthly Meetings and of Friends in general, 
and it is directed that the said advices be read in said meet- 
ings. 

In one direction, however, they felt they had 
an especial duty to the State and the nation. 



226 Quakers in the Revolution. 

The last slaves held by Pennsylvania Quakers 
were manumitted, wherever legally possible, 
about the time of the battle of Yorktown. 

It had taken one hundred years of agitation 
to bring about this result. The German 
Quakers of Germantown had protested in 1688: 
" There is a liberty of conscience here which is 
right and reasonable, and there ought to be like- 
wise liberty of the body, except for evil doers, 
which is another case. But to bring men hither, 
or to rob and sell them against their will, we 
stand against." From that time on the move- 
ment for abolition had advanced.^ In 1696 the 
Yearly Meeting advised not " to encourage the 
bringing in of any more negroes, and that such 
as have negroes be careful of them." 

The Friends of Chester County were particu- 
larly urgent, and ceased not to press the matter 
on the attention of the Yearly Meeting. In 
1711 they reported that " their meeting was dis- 
satisfied with Friends buying and encouraging 
the bringing of negroes." The next year they 
asked that London Yearly Meeting, as the cen- 



*A full history of this movement among Friends over 
the continent will be found in detail in the publications of 
the American Society of Church History, vol. viii., written 
by Allen Clapp Thomas. 



Friends and Slavery. 227 

tral l^ody, do somethinp; to bring about some con- 
certed action of all Friends the world over. But 
London was not ready, and in 1714 Philadelphia 
returns to the matter: 

We also kindly received your advice about negro slaves, 
and we are one with you that the multiplying of them 
may be of a dangerous consequence, and therefore a law 
was made in Pennsylvania, laying twenty pounds duty upon 
every one imported there, which law the Queen was pleased 
to disannul. We could heartily wish that a way might be 
found to stop the bringing in more here; or at least, that 
Friends may be less concerned in buying or selling of any 
that may be brought in; and hope for your assistance with 
the government if any farther law should be made dis- 
couraging the importation. We know not of any Friend 
amongst us that has any hand or concern in bringing any 
out of their own country; and we are of the same mind 
with you, that the practice is not commendable nor allow- 
able amongst Friends; and we take the freedom to acquaint 
you, that our request unto you was, that you would be 
pleased to consult or advise with Friends in other planta- 
tions, where they are more numerous than with us; because 
they hold a correspondence with you but not with us, and 
your meeting may better prevail with them, and your 
advice prove more effectual. 

In 1715, and again in 1716, the Chester 
Friends return to the charge : " The buying and 
selling of negroes gives great encouragement for 
bringing them in." To this the Yearly Meeting 
would only reply advising its members to avoid 
such purchases, and added: "This is only caution, 
not censure." 



228 Quakers in the Bevolution. 

Matters stood until 1729, when again, in re- 
sponse to another request from Chester, the meet- 
ing minuted " that Friends ought to be very 
cautious of making any such purchase for the 
future, it being disagreeable to the sense of this 
meeting." Advices to this effect were now given 
almost yearly, and in 1743 the following w^as 
added to the Queries: "Do Friends observe the 
former advice of our Yearly ^Meeting not to en- 
courage the importation of negroes nor to buy 
them after imported?" which, a few years later 
was strengthened into "Are Friends clear of im- 
porting or buying negroes, and do they use those 
well which they are possessed of by inheritance 
or otherwise, endeavoring to train them up in the 
principles of the Christian religion?" 

Thus the sentiment against slavery w^as fos- 
tered, and in 1758 the Yearly Meeting was 
brought to decisive action. After rejecting sev- 
eral compromises, tending to limit the advice as 
heretofore to the slave trade, the adopted min- 
ute stood : " This meeting fervently desires . . . 
that we would steadily observe the injunction 
of our Lord and Master to do unto others as we 
would they should do unto us, which it now ap- 
pears unto this meeting Avould induce such 
Friends who have slaves to set them at liberty, 



Friends and Slavery. 229 

making a Christian provision for them accord- 
ing to their ages." A committee was appointed, 
with John Woolman at its head, to extend Chris- 
tian advice to slaveholders and persuade them to 
release their slaves. 

For twenty years after this date there are 
many records on the minutes of monthly meet- 
ing of voluntary or persuaded manumissions. 
They were made individually matters of record, 
to prevent the same negro ever again being 
seized. 

Some, however, held out, and in 1775, in the 
midst of the throes of the outbreaking war, the 
m.eeting decided it had waited long enough: 
" Such members as continued to hold slaves are 
to be testified against as other transgressors are 
by the rules of our Discipline for other immoral, 
unjust and reproachful conduct." This was an 
instruction to the monthly meetings to take up 
each case individually, and, after careful labor 
and much persuasion, if he still remained recal- 
citrant, to disown him from the Society. This 
was done in some refractory cases. Others were 
complicated. Slaves were owned by minors; or 
husband and wife were not both members, and 
legal manumission could not be obtained, or 
other perplexing questions had to be settled : 



230 Quakers in the Revolution. 

^lost of the Friends appointed to inquire into the cir- 
cumstances of several negro slaves on whom it is thought 
J M had a claim, report they have done accord- 
ingly, and are inform.ed that his brother S M , 

deceased, by his last will gave the remainder of his estate 
to him after tlie bills and legacies were paid and appointed 
him executor of his Avill, and that his said brother had 
two negro men and one negro boy slaves, but that he had 
not taken upon him the administration of the estate, and 
did not intend to do it on account of the negroes. They 
advised him that in case administration should be granted 
to another person and there should be other estate enough 
to pay the debts and legacies (which he seemed not to 
doubt of) that he should discharge the administrator from 
the negroes and set them free, otherwise if thej'' should be 
sold to pay debts and legacies, and he receive the remainder 
of the estate he would be the cause of their continuation 
in bondage, which advice being considered is approved of. 

Faithfully and patiently the work was per- 
formed, and the end of the war saw the end of 
slavery in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and the 
voluntary compensation of many slaves for their 
labor while in bondage. This was advised in 
1779: "The state of the oppressed people who 
have been held by any of us in captivity and 
slavery, calls for a deep inquiry and close exam- 
ination how far we are clear of withholding from 
them what, under such an exercise, may open to 
view as their just riglit." Arbitrators decided 
the amount, and the former slaveholders liqui- 
dated an undemanded debt. 

The work was going on contemporaneously, 



Friends and Slavery. 231 

and at about the same rate, in the other Yearly 
Meetings. In the South the difficulties were far 
greater, mainly because the local laws forbade 
manumission. In some cases the expedient was 
resorted to of transferring them to the meetings, 
which arranged for their collective migration. 
Thousands of Southern Quakers removed to 
Ohio and Indiana to escape the blight of slavery. 
By 1790 slavery was at an end among the 
Friends of the United States, except in the few 
exceptional cases described above, and every 
Quaker was an abolitionist. 

They had not waited till this time, however, 
to urge upon legislative bodies the duty of abo- 
lishing first the slave trade, then slavery. 

William Penn was somewhat chagrined that 
when, in 1700, he and the Council proposed a law 
" for regulating negroes in their morals and mar- 
riages," it was rejected by the Assembly. This 
was at the time when anti-Proprietary feeling 
was strong, and the Delaware assemblymen were 
members of the body. 

In 1705 the House again showed its animus 
by passing severe laws inflicting capital punish- 
ment against negroes guilty of certain heinous 
crimes, which were not capital crimes when com- 
mitted bv the whites. In the same vear they 



232 Quakers in the Revolution. 

taxed the owners of imported negroes forty shil- 
lings per head. This tax was again levied in 
1710, but repealed by the Queen in Conncil in 
1714. 

In 1712, William Southeby, a Friend, prayed 
the legislature to abolish slavery in Pennsyl- 
vania. The House decided that this could not 
be granted. The same year, in response to many 
demands, they passed a bill levying the prohibi- 
tory duty of twenty pounds on every negro im- 
ported. This was also repealed by the Queen in 
Council. 

Various similar attempts at restrictive duties 
were made, to be met by the English veto, until, 
in 1729, one of two pounds was allowed to stand. 
This existed to 1761, when Friends secured its 
increase to ten pounds, against the petition of 
Philadelphia merchants, who declared that the 
trade of the Province was greatly hindered by 
the scarcity of laborers, and who wished to en- 
courage the importation of negroes. This nearly 
stopped the trade, and as Friends were all the 
time freeing their own negroes, the number of 
slaves in the Province was greatly decreased. In 
1773 the duty was made twenty pounds, and in 
1780 " an act for the gradual abolition of sla- 
very '' was passed. 



Friends and Slavery. 233 

President Reed said, in commending the law 
to the Assembly : " Honored will that state be, 
in the annals of history, which shall first abolish 
this violation of the rights of mankind, and the 
memories of those will be held in grateful and 
everlasting remembrance who shall pass the 
law to restore and establish the rights of human 
nature in Pennsylvania. '^ 

This, the first abolition act of America, pro- 
bably drawn up by George Bryan, decreed that 
all negro children born after the first of March, 
1780, might be held to service until the age of 
twenty-one years, and no longer. There never 
were many slaves in Pennsylvania. Under the 
effect of the law the number decreased from 
about four thousand to about two hundred in 
1820. 

While the educative influence of Friends had 
had much effect in shaping public opinion in 
Pennsylvania, and their past efforts had reduced 
greatly the pro-slavery interest of the Province, 
they were hardly in a condition to exert much 
weight directly for this act. They were at their 
lowest point in popular estimation, and their 
advocacy of a measure would not be any great 
aid to its passage. It must have been with great 



234 Quakers in the Revolution. 

satisfaction, however, that they viewed this tri- 
umph of the principles of freedom. 

Having extinguished slavery among them 
selves, and seen the slave trade dead and slavery 
dying in their own state, the Friends of Penn- 
sylvania turned their attention to the nation at 
large, and in 1783 addressed the impotent Con- 
gress of the Confederation: 

To the United States in Congress Assembled. The Ad- 
dress of the People called Quakers: 

Being through the favor of Divine providence met as 
usual at this season in our annual assembly, to promote the 
cause of piety and virtue we find with great satisfaction our 
well meant endeavors for the relief of an oppressed part 
of our fellow men have been so far blessed, that those of 
them who have been held in bondage by members of our 
religious Society are generally restored to freedom, their 
natural and just right. 

Commiserating the afflicted state with which the inhabi- 
tants of Africa are very deeply involved by many professors 
of the mild and benign doctrines of the Gospel, and afflicted 
with a sincere concern for the essential good of our country, 
we conceive it our indispensable duty to revive in your view 
the lamentable grievance of that oppressed people as an 
interesting subject, evidently claiming the serious attention 
of those who are entrusted with the powers of govern- 
ment as guardians of the common rights of mankind and 
advocates for liberty. 

We have long beheld with sorrow the complicated evils 
produced by an unrighteous commerce which subjects many 
thousands of the human species to the deplorable state of 
slavery. 

The restoration of peace and restraint to the effusion of 
human blood, we are persuaded excite in the minds of many 
of all the Christian denominations gratitude and thank- 



Friends and Slavery. 235 

fulness to the aUwise Controller of human events, but we 
have ground to fear that some, forgetful of the days of dis- 
tress are prompted by an avaricious motive to renew the 
trade for slaves to the African coast, contrary to every 
humane and righteous consideration, and in opposition to 
the solemn declarations often repeated in favor of universal 
liberty; thereby increasing the too general torrent of cor- 
ruption and licentiousness, and laying a foundation for 
future calamities. 

We therefore earnestly solicit your Christian interposi- 
tion to discourage and prevent so obscene an evil, in such 
manner as under the influence of Divine wisdom you shall 
see meet. 

Signed in and on behalf of our Yearly Meeting held in 
Philadelphia, Fourth-day of Tenth month, 1783, by five 
hundred and thirty-five Friends. 



Xothing, however, could be expected from the 
Continental Congress, which had outlived its 
best days, and had never had any real power. 
But when the administration of AVashington was 
securely seated, on the 3d of October, 1789, they 
sent an urgent address, signed by Xicholas 
AValn, clerk. In this they reiterated their belief 
that the Golden Rule was the only safe guide in 
national affairs; they called attention to their 
address of six years before, which, though it had 
apparently slumbered in Congress, had been fol- 
lowed by action in a number of states; they ex- 
pressed the opinion that the enormities of the 
slave trade called for its abolition at the earliest 
possible moment. 



236 Quakers in the Revolution. 

This address was taken to Xew York, where 
Congress was then in session, by a large com- 
mittee, and was reinforced by another from 
'New York Yearly Meeting of Friends. The 
report the next year tells the story, so far as the 
actions of the committee were concerned : 

Eleven of our number, joined by our Friend John Par- 
rish, met at New York about the time prefixed by the 
Meeting for Sufferings and previous to our presenting the 
same, took opportunities with divers members of that body, 
in order to prepare their minds, also attended the Meet- 
ings for Sufferings there, and opened our business, which 
meeting uniting therein, drew up a short address on the 
same subject, acknowledging their concurrence with us, and 
appointed a committee to join. We then in conjunction, 
presented the two addresses, which were read, and a com- 
mittee appointed out of the House of Representatives, to 
consider them, after which we proceeded to visit the mem- 
bers generally, both Senators and Representatives, and 
were by many respectfully received, and had very free and 
full opportunities with them, and were also notified by the 
Committee of Congress of the time of their meeting with 
liberty to attend and open before them what to us ap- 
peared necessary. This we did at different times and 
found them very open, and notwithstanding from the first 
introduction of those addresses there were some members 
much opposed throughout, yet on the whole we were sat- 
isfied that a large majority were favorably disposed toward 
this business. This evidently appeared by the votes of 
the House, which some of our number found themselves 
engaged to attend, till the subject was more fully investi- 
gated, and the report of their select committee with the 
alterations of the committee of the whole House were en- 
tered on the journals of Congress, when way appeared 
open to leave the subject for the pre.-ent in a state ready 
to be called up at any future time, and which subject we 



Friends and Slavery, 237 

apprehend to be weighty requiring the further continued 
care and concern of the Yearly Meeting. 
Philadelphia, Ninth Month 30th, 1790. 

The reception of this address opened the first 
of the long line of acrimonious slavery debates, 
which lasted for seventy years. The arguments 
on either side of the great question, which after- 
wards so emphatically divided the Union were 
enumerated in embryo, and the hot feeling which 
accompanied the discussion of the subject in later 
years here shows its dawning. As a side light we 
have evidence both of the enmity and the 
respect felt towards the Quakers by the different 
elements of the population eight years after the 
close of the war. 

The debate began by the usual motion, made 
by Hartley, of Pennsylvania, to refer the address 
to a committee; he thought it a mark of respect 
due to so numerous and respectable a part of the 
community. 

The Southern members. Smith, of South Caro- 
lina, and Jackson, of Georgia, opposed this un- 
usual proceeding. Madison, of Virginia, called 
attention to the fact that the Constitution for- 
bade all interference with the slave trade prior to 
1808, and argued that no commitment could pos- 
sibly affect the question, and he was therefore in 



238 Quakers in the Revolution, 

favor of it. Stone, of Maryland, and Burke, of 
South Carolina, while respecting the Quakers, 
did not think they possessed more virtue than 
other people, and thought that the other side 
should be presented, and then all referred to- 
gether. It would injure the value of slave prop- 
erty to have it made the subject of special in- 
quiry in this way. 

Other Southern members saw in this move- 
ment but a prelude to an attack on slavery it- 
self. Kor did the Quakers deserve any special 
consideration. " Is the whole morality of the 
United States confined to the Quakers?" asked 
Jackson. '^ Are they the only people whose 
feelings are to be consulted on the present oc- 
casion? Is it to them we owe our present hap- 
piness? Was it they who formed the Constitu- 
tion? Did they by their arms or contributions 
establish our independence ? I believe they were 
generally opposed to that measure." 

The matter went over. The next day the 
address was reinforced by a petition from the 
Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Aboli- 
tion of Slavery, signed by the venerable Dr. 
Franklin, as President. The debate went on, 
however, on the commitment of the Quaker 
address. 



Friends and Slavery. 239 

Scott, of Pennsylvania, regretted that the 
abolition of the slave trade was prohibited by 
the Constitution; he looked upon it as one of 
the most abominable things on earth, nor could 
he conceive how one person could have a right 
of property in another. If he were a judge he 
did not know how far he could go in the direc- 
tion of emancipation, but he would go as far as 
he could. 

Jackson found a warrant for slavery in the 
Bible from Genesis to Kevelation, and in all 
history. If he (Scott) were a Federal judge he 
might not know how far he could go, but his 
judgment would be of short duration in Geor- 
gia. Perhaps even the existence of such a judge 
might be in danger. 

Much stress was laid by the Southerners on 
the constitutional inability to grant the petition, 
and the consequent folly of committing it, to 
which it was replied that the commitment was 
only for purposes of discussion, and that from 
the Southern standpoint a quiet acquiescence 
would have saved all the discussion, which they 
deprecated. The motion to commit was carried, 
43 to 14. 

Five weeks later the House resolved itself into 



2-iO Qual'ers in the Revohdion. 

a committee of the whole to discuss the report 
of the committee. 

The report stated the limited power of Con- 
gress in dealing with the traffic; that it could 
not prohibit the trade prior to 1808; that it 
could not decree emancipation, nor interfere in 
the general treatment of slaves in the States; 
that it had a right to lav a tax of ten dollars on 
importations and to regulate the African trade 
so as to secure humane treatment of the negroes ; 
and finally it assured the memorialists that so 
far as its powers could go, it would endeavor to 
exercise them in the interests of justice, human- 
ity and good policy. 

A fierce debate immediately ensued. White 
and Brown, of Virginia, were opposed to some 
parts of the report as unnecessary, to other 
parts as mischievous. The interposition of the 
Quakers in the affairs of the Southern States 
had made slave property very precarious, and 
they hoped that Congress would not precipitate 
this great injury in order to gratify people who 
had never been friendly to the independence of 
America. 

The Quakers, said Burke, of South Carolina, 
were not the friends of freedom; in the late 
war they favored bringing this country under a 



Friends and Slavery. 241 

foreign yoke ; they descended to the character of 
spies; they supplied the enemy with provisions; 
they were guides and conductors to the British 
armies; and whenever the American army came 
into their neighborhood they found themselves in 
the enemy's country. Here Burke was called to 
order. 

Ilis colleague, Smith, took up his parable, and 
called attention to the publication of 1775, 
" The Ancient Testimony and Principles of the 
(Quakers," in which they said that it was not 
their province to set up and pull down govern- 
ments — that was God's prerogative ; they were to 
pray for those in authority and live a peaceable 
life under them. Why did they not leave this 
matter also to God? They evidently did not be- 
lieve what they professed, or else they had not 
virtue to practice what they believed. It was 
difficult to credit their pretended scruples, be- 
cause wliile they were exclaiming against the 
mammon of this world they were hunting after 
it with a step as steady as time and an appetite as 
keen as the grave. 

He appealed to Congress to allow each sec- 
tion to attend to its own abuses. The Southern 
people saw many evils in the Xorth, but they 
let them alone. Each was aware of the existence 



242 Quakers in the Revolution, 

of weaknesses in the other when thej formed the 
Union. The wise men of the ISTorth knew that 
slavery was ineradicably ingrafted upon the 
South, and the Southerners knew that Quaker 
doctrines had taken such deep root that resist- 
ance to them would be useless. " We took each 
other with our mutual bad habits and respective 
evils, for better, for worse; the ^N'orthern States 
adopted us with our slaves, and we adopted them 
with their Quakers." He argued that slavery 
was a necessity to South Carolina ; no other f onu 
of labor was possible. The slaves would leave 
all the low land as soon as emancipated, and rice 
and indigo would no more be raised. Commerce 
and manufactures w^ould suffer the country 
over. 

The slave trade was too valuable to be abused. 
Men would not destroy their own property, nor 
did slavery debase the owners. Witness the 
noble hospitality, the art, enterprise and ingenu- 
ity, the genuine love of freedom, which 
prompted all the sacrifices of the war, of South 
Carolina. 

The Quakers found a defender in Boudinot, 
of Xew Jersey. He was in favor of the resolu- 
tions, and thought an explicit declaration of 
the powers of Congress ought to allay rather than 



Friends and Slavery. 243 

excite fears. The ill treatment of the poor 
negroes on shipboard was no fiction. He quoted 
Anthonj Benezet's writings, and said he him- 
self had verified them by personal inquiry. He 
had little respect for the Biblical and historical 
arguments adduced. It is true the Egyptians 
held the Israelites in bondage, and he supposed 
supported the practice by the same arguments 
as the Southerners to-day. But God delivered 
them, and He is the same. He knew the Quak- 
ers. He was Commissary-General during the 
Avar, and he knew how much their voluntary 
care of the suffering had relieved the situation. 
Some of them opposed the Revolution — so did 
individual Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and 
members of almost every other body; while the 
Quakers gave the patriot cause a Greene and 
a Mifilin. 

The resolutions, after being amended by large 
omissions, were carried against the Southerners 
by a vote of twenty-nine to twenty-five. The 
signing of the memorial of the Pennsylvania 
Society was almost the last act of the life of 
Dr. Franklin. He died very soon after the 
vote. His Society, having received the answer 
" that Congress had no right to interfere in the 
emancipation of slaves or their treatment in any 



244 Quakers in the Revolution. 

of the States/' sent in no more petitions, con- 
fining its efforts to purely philanthropic labors. 

In the second Congress, the declaration made 
in 1790 that the Government had power to mit- 
igate the evils of the slave trade, brought in a 
multitude of petitions from the Korth. They 
were, however, all smothered without debate, 
except one from Warner Mifflin. He had freed 
his own slaves on his Delaware plantation, and 
had made ample provision for their maintenance. 
He now sent a memorial to CongTess asking the 
United States to do likewise. It was presented 
by Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts, who dis- 
avowed any sympathy with the petition, and 
considered it inexpedient to bring the subject 
up. But he recognized the right of the memor- 
ialist to be heard. The Southerners were im- 
mediately in arms. Such things did immense 
mischief in the South, and did not ameliorate the 
condition of the negroes. They should not be 
presented to the House, and such summary ac- 
tion should be taken as to convince all enthu- 
siasts that the subject would never be considered. 
To this the House apparently agreed. On mo- 
tion it was resolved " that the paper purporting 



Friends and Slavery. 245 

to be a petition from Warner Mifflin be returned 
to him by the clerk of the House." 

Spurred by the Haytien revolution, Congress 
acted favorably on a Quaker petition to pro- 
hibit the carrying of slaves from the United 
States to the West Indies, with large penalties 
for its evasion. But when Philadelphia Yearly 
Meeting, in 1797, again appealed to them, the 
discussion opened as fiercely as ever. The me- 
morial itself, like all Quaker papers, was quiet 
and moderate: 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States in Congress assembled: — 

The memorial and address of the people called Quakers 
from their Yearly Meeting held in Philadelphia by ad- 
journments from the 25th of the Ninth Month to the 29th 
of the same inclusive, 1797. 

Respectfully sheweth : 

That being concerned at this our Annual Solemnity for 
the promotion of the cause of truth and righteousness, we 
have been favored to experience religious weight to at- 
tend our minds, and an anxious desire to follow after those 
things which make for peace; among other investigations, 
the oppressed state of our brethren of the African race has 
been brought into view and particularly the circumstances 
of one hundred and thirty-four in North Carolina, and 
many others whose cases have not so fully come to our 
knowledge, who were set free by members of our religious 
Society and again reduced to cruel bondage, under the 
authority of existing or retrospective laws. Husbands and 
wives and children separated one from another, which we 
apprehend to be an abominable tragedy; and with other 



246 Quakers in the Revolution. 

acts of a similar nature practised in other States has a ten- 
dency to bring down the judgments of a righteous God upon 
our land. 

This city and neighborhood and some other parts have 
been visited with an awful calamity, which ought to excite 
an inquiry into the cause and endeavors to do away those 
things which occasion the heavy clouds that hang over us. 
It is easy with the Almighty to bring down the loftiness of 
men by diversified judgments and to make them bear the 
Rod and Him that hath appointed it. 

We wish to revive in your view the solemn engagement 
of Congress, made in the year 1774, as follows: 

''And therefore we do for ourselves and the inhabitants 
of the several Colonies whom we represent, firmly agree and 
associate under the sacred ties of virtue, honor and love 
of our country, as follows: 

" Second Article. We will neither import nor purchase 
any slaves imported after the first day of December next, 
after which time we will wholly discontinue the slave 
trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves nor will 
Ave hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manu- 
factures to those who are concerned in it. 

" Third Article. And will discountenance and discourage 
every species of extravagance and dissipation, especially all 
horse-racing and a'l kinds of gambling, cock-fighting, exhi- 
bitions of shows, plays and other expensive diversions and 
entertainments." 

This was a solemn league and covenant made with the 
Almighty in an hour of distress, and He is now calling 
upon you to perform and fulfill it, but how has this solemn 
covenant been contravened by the wrongs and cruelties 
practised upon the poor African race,— the increase of dis- 
sipation and luxury, the countenance and encouragement 
given to play-houses and other vain amusements, and how 
grossly is the Almighty affronted on the day of the cele- 
bration of Independence! What rioting and drunkenness, 
chambering and wantonness! to the great grief of sober 
inhabitants and tlie disgrace of our national character. 

National evils produce national judgments. We there- 



Friends and Slavery. 247 

fore fervently pray the Governor of the universe may en- 
lighten your understanding and influence your minds so as 
to engage you to use eveiy exertion in your power to have 
these things redressed. 

With sincere desires for your happiness here and here- 
after, and that when you come to close this life, you may 
individually be able to appeal as a Ruler did formerly, 
" Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked 
before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have 
done that which is good in thy sight," we remain your 
friends and fellow citizens. 

Signed in and on behalf of the said Meeting. 

Jonathan Evans, 
Clerk to the Meeting this year. 

The Memorial was presented by Albert Gal- 
latin, of Pennsylvania, who, after its reading 
by the clerk moved its second reading. Har- 
per, of South Carolina, hoped not. This was 
not the first, second or third time the House 
had been troubled with similar petitions, w^hich 
tended to incite the slaves to freedom; this and 
all other legislatures ought to set their faces 
strongly against such remonstrances. 

Thatcher, of Massachusetts, took the opposite 
view. If the Quakers thought themselves ag- 
grieved it was their duty to present the petition 
seventy times, or until it was attended to. 

'Rutledge, of South Carolina, would not ob- 
ject to the commitment of the petition if the 
committee would properly censure it. The body 



248 Quakers in the Revolution. 

wliicli sent tins petition should be censured. 
They had atteniped to seduce the servants of 
gentlemen traveling to the seat of government. 
They were importuning Congress to interfere in 
a business Avhich was none of their concern. 
But, not believing that such a censure would 
result, he would be in favor of laying the peti- 
tion on the table, or under the table, to have 
done with the business to-day and forever. When 
other nations were plunging in blood, here were 
these people trying to stir up a ser^dle insurrec- 
tion. 

To this Gallatin replied that the memorial was 
only taking the ordinary course. It called atten- 
tion to certain free blacks afterwards enslaved 
in Xorth Carolina. He did not think this was of 
a tendency dangerous to property or civil order. 
The moral character of the memorialists was 
such that he believed they were not friends to 
any kind of disorder. The imcertainty as to 
Avhat could be done was the very reason for com- 
mitment. 

Macon, of Xorth Carolina, wished that all 
blacks were out of the country, and so did every 
gentleman in his State. He considered the 
Quakers not peacemakers, but thought they 
were continuallv endeavorinc; in the Southern 



Friends and Slavery. 249 

States to stir up insurrection among the negroes. 
They were Tories in the war, and only began to 
set their negroes free when the State law prohib- 
ited it. . The petition was only to sow dissension. 

The Friends found a defender in Bayard, of 
Delaware. He believed they were respectable 
and obedient, and contributed cheerfully to the 
support of government. The petition ought to 
be committed out of respect to them, though he 
believed the Congress had, contrary to the claims 
of other gentlemen, authority over the case of 
these free negroes relegated to slavery. 

]^icholas, of Virginia, would be glad to have 
slaverv^ investigated. He thought it would help 
it. The Southerners Avere unfortunate in hav- 
ing to hohl slaves, but they did not^vnsh to cover 
up any evils. He was in favor of commitment. 

Blount, of ^orth Carolina, explained how the 
freed negroes had been re-enslaved in a perfectly 
legal and proper way. 

So the debate continued, a general disposition 
appearing in the Virginia representatives and all 
further Xorth to admit the iniquity of slavery, 
the desirability of inquiring into its operations, 
and of abolishing the foreign trade as soon as 
they constitutionally could. Georgia and tlie 
two Carolinas were violently opposed to all action 



250 Quakers in the Revolution. 

except siinimary dismissal of the memorial, and 
could feel no respect for the memorialists, who 
were sitting in the gallery in a body while the 
debate went on. 

At the final vote no opposition appeared to the 
commitment. 

It is not the purpose of this chapter to carry 
the history of the relation of Friends to slavery 
into the present century. They were constant 
in their opposition to it, and the ranks of the 
Pennsylvania abolitionists were largely filled 
Avith them. As violence increased on both sides 
and war loomed up in the foreground, many of 
them began to deprecate the radical views of the 
extremists as to the proper methods to employ, 
but to a man they opposed slavery. And when 
war came, a war on an evil against which they 
were committed by every item of their history 
and every instinct of their religion, they could 
not join in it, but they could thankfully say, in 
the spirit of Southeby, Woolman, Benezet and 
Mifflin, and in the words of their own poet, 

LAUS DEO. 

It is done! 
Clang of bell and roar of gun. 
Send the tidings up and down. 

How the belfries rock and reel; 

How the great guns, peal on peal, 
Fling the joy from town to town! 



Friends and Slavery. 251 



Ring, O, bells! 
Every stroke exultant tells 
Of the burial hour of crime. 

Loud and long, that all may hear; 

Ring, for every listening ear, 
Of eternity and time! 

Let us kneel; 
God's own. voice is in that peal, 
And this spot is holy ground. 
Lord forgive us! What are we 
That our eyes this glory see, 
That our ears have heard the sound! 



INDEX 



Adams, John, Dian- of, quoted II., 280 

Address of Quarterly Meeting ... .1., 231 et seq., 234 et seq. 

Arnold, Benedict H., U9 

Aslibridge, George I-j 264 

Assembly I., 56, 62, 64, 72, 140, 150, 187, 197, 

200 et seq., 213, 244 

Attorney-General yetoes bills I., 127 

Baily, Joshua L H., 292 

Bancroft's History U. S I., 63, 67 

Barclay, Da^-id 11., 88, 110 

Biddle, O^ven 11., 208 

Blackwell. John I., 68, 78 

Braddock: I., 177, 213, 214 

Brandj-^vine, Battle of 11., 146 

Brissot, J. P., " Nouyeau Voyage dans les Etats- 

unis," etc., quoted II., 253 

Broomall, John M II., 284 

Bryan, George II-, 233 

Burlington I., 22, 224 

Butler, Thomas S II., 284 

Butler, William II., 285 

Campaigns About Philadelphia II., 145 

Capital Punishment I., 148 

Carlisle, Abraham II., 192 

Carpenter, Samuel I., 84, 193 

Catholics I-, 126 

Charity, Quaker I-, 34 

Charter of 1701 1., 64, 105, 120 ; n., 1 

Coates, Samuel 11., 269 et seq. 

Cole, Josiah I., 130 

Conestoga Indians 11., 42 

Congress. Debate on Slayerj' in II., 237, 244, 247 

Conscience I., 117, 261 

Contest of Assembly With Proprietors 11., 18, 64, 97 

Continental Congress, First II., 104 

Conventicle Act I-> 16 



Index. 

Cope, Thomas P II., 275 et seq. 

Council I., 60-62, 71, 140, 197 

Darlington, Isaac II., 284 

Darlington, Smedley II., 284 

Darlington, Dr. William II., 285 

Darragh, Lydia II., 210 

Denny, William II., 14 

Dickinson, John II., 94, 105 

Discipline, Quaker I., 22 et seq. 

Disownment 11., 132 

Disputes Among Quakers L, 23 et seq. 

Education, Quaker I., 35 et seq. 

Emlen, Dr. Samuel II., 282 

Episcopalians I., 89, 134, 142 

Evans, Cadwalader II., 271 

Evans, John I., 90, 94 

Fisher, Miers II., 280 

Fletcher, Colonel I., 69, 78, 193 

Flower, Enoch I., 37 

Forts I., 217, 245 

Fothergill, Dr. John I., 207, 228, 250; II., 80, 

83, 86, 110, 113, 118, 122 

Fothergill, Samuel I., 243 et seq. 

Fox, George I., 9, 10, 130, 153 

Frames of Government I., 48, 62, 64 

Franklin, Benjamin I., 105, 110, 211, 230 ; 

II., 15, 44, 54, 73, 84, 110 

Free Quakers 207 

Friendly Association I., 179; II., 14, 21, 38 

Fundamental Constitutions I., 58 

Furly, Benjamin I., 57 

Gallatin, Albert II., 247 

Garrett, Philip C II., 291 

Garrett, Thomas II., 289 

Germans I., 102 ; 11., 2 

Germantown, Battle of II., 147 

Gilpin, Thomas II., 162 

Gookin, Governor I., 94, 197, 199 

Government of Pennsylvania II., 1 

Government, Quaker Relation to I., 15, 134, 202, 

208, 241, 258 
Governors, List of Deputy I., 70 



History of Quaker Government, 

Griffitts, Dr. Samuel Powel II., 282 

Griscom, Elizabeth .II., 210 

Hamilton, Andrew I., 88 

Hamilton, James II., 16 

Hartshorn, Dr. Joseph II., 282 

Hat Honor • I., 12 

Hayes, Jonathan I., 149 

Hierarchy, No I., 40 

Humphreys, Charles II-, 284 

Hunt, John I., 254; IL, 162 

Indian Conference I-, 173 

Indian Trade I-, 155 

Indian Treaties II., 28, 31 

Indian War H-, 24 

Indians I> 152 

James, Dr. Thomas Chalkley 11., 281 

Jersey, Purchase of I-, 131 

Jones, Dr. John II-, 281 

Jury Service I-, 132 

Keith, George I., 79 81 

Keith, Governor ,. ---I., 149 

Kirkbride, Dr. Thomas S II., 282 

Lancaster H-, 43 

Lewis, Evan H-j 286 

Liberty, Religious L, 1, 116 

Lloyd, David L, 80, 85, 87, 92, 197, 200 

Lloyd, Thomas L, 35, 68, 69, 80 

Locke, John I., 63 

Loe, Thomas I-j 8 

Logan, Dr. George II., 259 et seq. 

Logan, James I., 35, 49, 70, 85, 91, 170, 185, 

225, 229 ; II., 23 

Logan, William II-, 10, 37, 93 

Lundy, Benjamin H-j 286 

Magna Charta I., 52, 128 

Markham, William I., 69, 78, 80, 159 

Marshall, Humphrey II., 263 et seq. 

Masson's Life of Milton — I-, 17 

McKean, Chief Justice II., 159 

Meeting for Sufferings II., 57, 59, 69, 77, 107, 123, 195 

Meeting Houses II-5 181 

Mifflin, Thomas II., 105, 135 



Index. 

Mifflin, Warner II., 244, 255 et seq. 

Military Matters I., 183 

Militia Law I., 216 

Minisink Indians I., 171 

Minutes of Council II., 25 

Minutes of Meetings. . . .1., 23-28, 34, 35, 44, 46, 144-146, 

231, 233, 243, 256, 261, 262 

Morality, Quaker I., 27 et seq. 

Moravians II., 345 

Morris, Governor I., 110 

Morton, Dr. Samuel George II., 282 

Non-importation JI., 76 

Norris, Isaac I., 91 

Norris, Isaac 2d II., 11 

Oaths I., 2, 14, 133, 136 et seq. 

Paper Money I., 103 

Parrish, Dr. Joseph II., 282 

Parties, in 1710 1., 85 ; in 1740, I., 101 

Paxton Demands II., 47 

Paxton Riot II., 42 

Pemberton, Israel I., 180, 261; II., 12, 26, 38, 48, 70 

Pemberton, James.... I., 110, 249, 254, 269 ; II., 13, 34, 

48, 64, 66, 89, 103, 107, 120, 213 

Pemberton, John I., 266 ; II., 13 

Penington, Edward II., 50 

Penn, John II., 20, 44, 59, m 

Penn, Richard II., 10 

Penn, Thomas I., 171, 211 ; IL, 10 

Penn, William I., 3, 4, 42 

Early Life I., 7 et seq. 

Constitutions I., 47, 51, 53, 56 et seq., 63 et seq. 

Visits America I., 67 

Letter of 1710 1., 96 et seq. 

On Religious Liberty I., 119, 120, 128 

Purchase of New Jersey I., 131 

Advises Judges to Resist I., 139 

Writes to Indians , I., 153 

On War I., 184 

Diet of Nations I., 185 

Union of Colonies I., 186 

Commends Force I., 188 

Before Committee of Trade I.^ 191 



History of Quaker Government, 

Penn, William, Jr I., 90 

Persecution of Quakers I., 16, 19 

Petition to King I., 219 

" Philopolites," I., 54 

Position of Friends in the War II., 130, 175, 204 

Preparing for the Revolution II., 75 

Presbyterians II., 4 

Price, Eli K II., 281 

Principles of Government I., 1 

Proprietary Instructions I., 106 

Purchase of Indian Lands I., 157, 158, 162, 176 

Puritans I., 117 

Quaker Control of Elections I., 75 

Quaker Delinquents II., 49 

Quaker Discipline I., 22 et seq. 

Quaker Doctrine I., 9 et seq. 

Quaker Education I., 35 et seq. 

Quaker Morality I., 27 et seq. 

Quaker Organization I., 21, 134 

Quaker Party I., 265 ; II., 7 

Quaker Persecution I., 16, 19 

Quaker Remonstrance to Assembly L, 217 

Quaker Suffering II., 172, 177 

Quakers, No Special Favors I., 129 et seq. 

Quakers, Number in Pennsylvania I., 74 

Quarry, Colonel I., 79 

Reed, Joseph II., 200, 233 

Representation in Assembly I., 73 

Resignation of Quakers I., 221, 222 

Revere, Paul II., 105 

Roberts, John II., 193 

Roberts, Jonathan II., 266 et seq., 286 

Roberts, Moses II., 191 

Rum, Sale of to the Indians I., 164 et seq. 

School, William Penn Charter I., 37 

Scotch-Irish II., 9 

Shepherd's History of Proprietary Government. .. I., 75, 134 

Shipley, Thomas -"H., 288 

Shippen, Edward I., 70 

Shoemaker, Benjamin II., 37 

Sidney, Algernon I., 57 

Simcock, John • I., 192 



Index. 

Slavery I., 31 et seq.; II., 137, 224 

Smith, Dr. George II., 285 

Sorcery I., 40 

Southeby, William II., 232 

Spanktown Yearly Meeting II., 155 

Stamp Act II., 76 

Stamp Act Congress II., 81, 98 

Taxation of Proprietary Estates I., 108 ; II., 15 

Tea II., 102 

Teachers Fined II., 184 

Tedyuscung I., 180 ; II., 26, 27, 30, 35 

Tests for Office I., 121 et seq., 124 

Thomas, Governor I., 105, 204 et seq. 

Thomas, Richard II., 284 

Thomson, Charles I., 169 ; II., 33, 35, 105, 166 

Townsend, Joseph II., 189 

Townsend, Washington II., 284 

Treaties, Indian I.,152, 160, 180 ; II., 28 et seq., 38 

Treaty, Penn's I., 152, 160 

Vaux, Roberts II., 271 et seq. 

Virginia Exiles II., 145, 151 

Walking Purchase I., 170 et seq. 

Wain, Nicholas II., 217 

Wain, Robert II., 267 et seq. 

War Aganst Indians, 1756 1., 178, 220, 247 

War, Quaker Views on I., 2, 14, 184, 189, 201, 208, 210 

War Taxes I., 194 ct seq., 200, 204, 216, 247 

Washington, George II., 167, 170, 171, 220, 222 

Wavne, Anthony II., 117 

Wetherill, Samuel II., 54, 209 

White, Josiah II., 278 et seq. 

Wilson, Christopher I., 254 

Wistar, Dr. Caspar II., 282 et seq. 

Witchcraft I., 39 

Wood, Dr. George B II., 282 

Worship I., 12 

Yearly Meeting Epistles, etc. . .1., 41, 143, 144 ; II., 57, 

115, 129, 138, 163, 173, 180, 184, 201, 234, 236, 245 



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